The German government said Thursday that it would tighten the laws against illegal export of weapons and weapons technology and increase penalties for violations.
Draft legislation prepared by the government would raise the maximum prison term to 10 years.
Profits from illegal arms deals would be subject to confiscation, and customs officers would be authorized to tap the telephones of suspected firms and check their incoming and outgoing mail.
The government’s announcement came as the German media continued to accuse the authorities of laxity and to name companies it said had illicit arms deals with Iraq and other countries.
The managers of several firms denied on television Wednesday night that German industry as a whole collaborated with Iraq to develop chemical weapons and extend the range of its Scud missiles.
The industrialists argued that Germany has the best controls in the world to detect and punish violators of arms exports regulations.
The weekly news magazine Stern charged, meanwhile, that the Dusseldorf-based Thyssen company built a huge laboratory for Iraq in 1980 and 1981 for research and experiments on chemical and biological weapons.
It said six other German companies were also involved in the project.
According to Stern, the $14 million contract came to the attention of the German secret service, which reported it to government agencies. To obtain the order, the company had to sign an agreement not to deal with Israel, Stern said.
Thyssen promptly denied the allegation. But a spokesman confirmed that it signed a boycott pledge at the insistence of the Iraqis. He said it was “routine” in normal trade relations.
The German television channel ZDF, meanwhile, reported that Libya has accumulated a huge arsenal of chemical and biological weapons protected by a system of bunkers.
The report said experts and technicians of several nationalities, including Germans, are helping the Libyans run the facility.
In 1984, a British magazine, New Scientist, reported that an unidentified West German firm was helping Iraq build vast underground bunkers around Baghdad to protect top officials from nuclear, chemical or biological warfare.
Each bunker reportedly can hold 600 people for two weeks. A sophisticated ventilation system was reportedly supplied by the West German firm Artos.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
