Bern to impose sanctions on Chad

Switzerland says it is taking sanctions against Chad after the central African country armed a Swiss-made aircraft illegally and used it in a conflict.

In a government statement on Friday no details of the sanctions were given. However, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said they included visa restrictions to Switzerland on Chadian government officials.

The government said it did not want the sanctions to affect the civilian population and as a result they were targeted at “representatives of the state”.

Swiss development aid to Chad, valued at about SFr14 million ($13.46 million) last year, will not be affected.

“Many of the sanction details have yet to be worked out,” Erwin Bollinger, head of Seco’s exports policy, told swissinfo.

He added that the Pilatus company of central Switzerland, which made the PC-9 training aircraft used in attacks on Sudan’s Darfur region, would no longer supply Chad.

The statement said the government would ask parliament for a modification to regulations on export controls to reduce the risk of such abuse in the future.
Switzerland and Chad have little in the way of bilateral trade.

It added that Seco investigations into the aircraft deal with Chad had found that Pilatus had carried out its part of the contract “correctly”.