ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Dutch govt blocks ‘strategic’ Pak-bound shipments

The Dutch government has blocked five export shipments bound for Pakistan because they were suspected of being destined for strategic uses, a spokesperson said today.

The government released no details of what was in the shipments or which companies were trying to export them without the necessary permits.

‘’We expected that they would be used for strategic uses,'' said spokesperson Paula de Jonge of the ministry of economic affairs.

The shipments were intercepted over the past year, she said, refusing to be more specific. They are still being held in the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, Dutch media reported today.

The suspect shipments came to light this week when Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland reported that they were destined for Pakistan's weapons programmes.

Vrij Nederland reported that the shipments were made by a Dutch company with links to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of Pakistan's nuclear programme.

Dr Khan was convicted in absentiaand sentenced to four years in prison by a Amsterdam district court in November 1983 for stealing confidential information from Urenco, a Dutch-British-German consortium that enriches uranium for the nuclear power industry.

Dr Khan's conviction was later overturned on a legal technicality. He worked at Urenco in the 1970s.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report