Irish firm denies brokering arms deal to Sudan

A DUBLIN-BASED company has denied any involvement in an arms trade controversy involving the brokering of arms shipments to Sudan.

In a report to be launched in Kenya today, Amnesty International reveals two firms - one British and one Irish - were authorised by the Sudanese authorities to negotiate the supply of military equipment to Sudan - despite an EU-wide arms embargo.

Irish-registered Sinclair Holdings 7 Ltd and British company Endeavour Resources are both named by Amnesty as having been authorised this year by the Sudanese authorities to negotiate for the supply of various equipment, including rocket launchers, battle tanks and armoured fighting vehicles.

Both companies stringently deny the allegation and claim they were set up by an aggrieved third party.

However in an End Use Certificate (EUC) from the Sudanese Military Industries Corporation, which has been seen by the Irish Examiner, Sinclair Holdings 7 is specifically authorised to negotiate for the supply of 50 T-72 main battle tanks and spare engines.

But speaking to the Irish Examiner, the directors of both companies denied any wrongdoing and said they had been set up by a third party intermediary who was seeking to push the Sudan deal through.

Sinclair director Brian Footer, with an address in Geneva, said his company was formed in 1990 and had never traded. “It was formed with a group of military companies and was going to trade but unfortunately at the beginning the backers pulled out and did something else.”

Mr Footer said the EUC must have been issued under “someone else’s instructions.”

“I didn’t know anything about it. It certainly doesn’t exist in my files. I’m not doing anything illegal.”

Mr Footer said his only involvement was that he had been asked by Endeavour Resources’ owner John Knight to check out the third party individual seeking to push through the deal.

Mr Knight said the Sudanese EUCs naming both companies had been forged and sold by the intermediary.

Although he accepted he was interested in the deal, Mr Knight said it never got past the talking stage.

“Sudan has been trying to buy that equipment since 1999/2000. I was approached by an intermediary to do the business in which I’d been keeping things on the hook for a number of years,” he said.

“It never moved on beyond talking. I never spoke to anybody who was anybody. I dealt with a middle man who I now know was making money out of all and sundry.

“In the end I actually pulled the plug and faxed Moscow. I said I no longer wanted to be associated with this,” he said.

A spokesman for the department said it was aware of Amnesty’s report and “was examining the matter.”