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Scania dodged UN sanctions in Iraq

Swedish government agencies allowed truck maker Scania to ignore United Nations sanctions in order to sell buses and trucks in Iraq in the early 2000s, Sveriges Radio reports.

Published: 13 November 2008 06:40 CET

Scania carried out the sales using a Russian company as a front because, according to an internal memo, the Iraqis had started demanding illegal commissions from everyone who wanted to sell to them.

“It is one way to go around the sanction provisions decided upon by the UN,” said prosecutor Nils-Eric Schultz, who is investigating the company for possible sanctions violations.

Initially the company saw the illegal commissions as a reason to stop selling to Iraq, but after nothing was done and its competitors continued to do business in Iraq, Scania decided to look for other solutions.

Formally, Scania sold 17 trucks and 125 buses to a Russian company, but in reality the vehicles were heading straight to Iraq.

The arrangement put the burden of paying any Iraqi commissions on the shoulders of the front company.

According to Scania memo, plans for using a front to export to Iraq were drawn up together with officials from Sweden’s foreign ministry and the government’s National Board of Trade (Kommerskollegium).

When asked by Sveriges Radio, officials from both agencies denied having any knowledge of the arrangement.

“It makes me a little upset that there are public servants who gave advice based on going around sanctions that the UN had put in place; I mean, it shows a total lack of respect for the United Nations as an institution,” said Schultz.

Sveriges Radio also reports that both the UN and the foreign ministry had received information about the illegal Iraqi commissions but did nothing about the matter.

Iraq was put under UN sanctions from the time of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s up until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Danish U-turn: children with sick relatives should stay home

Parents have been worried about the reopening. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Magnus Heunicke announced the new policy in a press release sent out on Sunday, following widespread criticism of the guidance from the Danish Health Authority (Sundhetsstyrelsen) that having sick relatives at home should not prevent children returning when schools reopen this week.

“Many have been unsure whether the right measures have been taken when schools and daycare services open up again on Wednesday,” Heunicke said in the press release.

“In particular there have been questions over whether children should attend kindergarten or school if someone is infected with Covid-19 at home. This uncertainty is now being taken away by the government.”

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Municipal governments in Aalborg, Aarhus and Odense, among others, had already responded to public unease about children bringing the infection from home by saying they would defy the health authority and allow the families of children who have sick people at home to keep them home.

The Danish government's decision to overrule its own health authority sees the country's policy diverge from that of neighbouring Sweden, where the advice to parents is that children should be sent to school even if someone at home is ill.

Heunicke said that the decision had followed a reappraisal of how likely it is that children will be able to follow hygiene requirements.

“There are a number of strict requirements for cleaning, hygiene and self-insulation when there is a coronavirus infection at home. This can be really difficult for families with smaller children, and we understand that there are many who are unsure about this situation,” he said.

“Therefore, in the government, we have decided, on a precautionary principle, that children living in a household with a person who has coronavirus should not attend school or daycare.”

This decision applies only to children, and not to adult staff who work in schools or kindergartens, as the ministry believes adult staff will be better able to follow sanitary guidelines.

According to a survey by Local Government Denmark, which represents the country's municipalities, over half of Denmark's municipalities plan to reopen schools and kindergartens on Wednesday, with the rest following no later than Monday.

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