Exports to Libya
W. Germany Sets New Control Measures
By Robert J. McCartney
Washington Post Foreign Service
BONN, Jan. 11—The West Ger-
man
government
today
acknowl-
i
edged for the first time that inves-
tigators
have
uncovered
'Indica-
tions’* that two West German firms
may have made
unauthorized ex-
:
ports to Libya.
The statement appeared to rep-
resent a reversal by the Bonn gov-
ernment,
which
had
insisted
for
more than a week that
it had seen
no indications or evidence to sup-
;
port U.S. administration allegations
|
that
five West German companies
:
helped Libya build a chemical weap-
ons factory.
Customs investigators and other
export-monitoring authorities have
obtained information indicating that
two
of the
five companies
impli-
cated
by
Washington
may
have
been involved with a Belgian trans-
port company
in making unautho-
rized exports to
Libya, a govern-
ment spokesman said.
Yesterday
the
government
an-
nounced a mqjor package of control
i
measures for new arms shipments
abroad that commentators here said
was a clear admission that the Bonn
!
government had been lax in enforc-
ing its own ban on military exports
to regions of tension.
[In Washington, a State Depart-
ment
spokesman
“warmly
wel-
comed" Bonn's move, adding
that
the
administration would have
to
I
study the new restrictions careful-
!
ly
]
The two West German compa-
;
nies implicated are IBI Engineering
;
of Frankfurt, which has been linked
j
to an
Iraqi businessman
identified
as Ihsan
Barbouti, and Imhausen-
i
Chemie GmbH
gf.J-ahr,
said
the
Bonn government spokesman
in a
telephone
interview
tonight. The
!
Belgian firm
is Cross Link of Ant-
werp, the spokesman added.
, Imhausen previously has denied
that
it
delivered
chemical
arms
equipment to Libya, while IBI En-
gineering
has
not
publicly
re-1
sponded
to the
allegations.
Cross;
Link refused comment when con-
tacted today, Reuter news agency
reported;
West German
officials said that
customs investigators a week ago
confiscated 12 containers of docu-
ments belonging to IBI Engineering
as part of an inquiry into the U.S.
allegations. West German and Bel-
gian authorities were cooperating iii
the inquiry, the Bonn officials said.-
.
It was too early to say whether
investigators
have
obtained
“evi-
dence" of illegal exports to Libya*
the
government
spokesman
said
tonight.
Earlier
in
the
day,
Reuters
quoted Bonn government sources
as saying that West German author-
ities had evidence that West Ger-
man firms helped Libya build what
the United States says is a chemical
weapons plant.
“We are in possession of evidence
which shows that the American al-
legations
are
not
groundless,”
Reuters quoted a source as saying.
“Imhausen will not be able to extri-
cate
itself from the matter now,”
the agency quoted a government
source as saying.
But the government spokesman
said
that
the
sources
quoted
by
Reuter went “too far,” because “we
have
no
formal
report
with
evi-
dence from the responsible author-
ities.”
Chancellor Helmut
Kohl’s
gov-
ernment reacted with a mixture of
deep embarrassment and irritation,
after U.S. officials leaked the name
of the Imhausen firm to U.S. media
late last month. U.S. officials main-
tain that Imhausen, a chemicals and
pharmaceuticals company belonging
to a group
with 350 employees.
See BONN, A32, Col. 4
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000500070001-9
?
By.Robert J.M<£artney
i'
' ?
'-' s
'
Ptat Porelgn'dervtDe "
'
VIENNA, jan,
16—West
Ger-
many’s government said today for
information
until
October
of
last
;
year.
Stoltenberg’s statements repre-
sented another step back from West
Germany’s initial, irritated rebuff of
the first time that it believes that a
controversial factory in Libya
will
be* able to make poison gas, but
it
continued to insist that
it only has
U.S. administration allegations that
five West German firms helped con-
struct a chemical arms factory at
Rabta, Libya.
indications that West German com-
The
minister’s
remarks
were
panies helped build the plant.
made in part to a news conference,
In
comments
to
reporters
in
and
in part afterward to a corre-
Bonn,
Finance
Minister
Gerhard
spondent of the Reuter news agen-
Stoltenberg
also
disclosed
that
cy
in Bonn.
His comments were
Bonn had obtained information as
confirmed in a telephone interview
early as August of last year that
with
his
chief
spokesman,
Karl-
raised
suspicions
about
possible
Heinz von den Driesch, in Bonn.
West German
corporate
involve-
“We have to assume that at this
ment in building the
factory. Pre-
factory there
is a section that will
viously, West German officials had
be able to produce poison gas,” Stol-
said they Were not aware of such
See GERMANY, A18, CoL 1
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000500070001-9
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