Every year, Switzerland exports hundreds of millions of francs worth of war material throughout the world. According to the law, this armament should not be delivered to countries at war. The reality is murkier. TempsPresent conducted the survey, in partnership with SRF, RSI, NZZ am Sonntag and the NGO Lighthouse Reports.
Are Swiss weapons used in wars? Accompanied by the NGO Lighthouse Reports, a dozen journalists sifted through hundreds of videos and photos, available in particular on social networks. These images of war have been decrypted and analyzed in their smallest detail, thanks to “open source” intelligence tools – the search for information hidden in digital publications accessible to all.
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While the law provides for reservations to prevent Swiss-made weapons from being used in ongoing wars, this investigative work has shown that this material is at the heart of the action in certain conflicts. A finding corroborated on the ground by Temps Present, which went to several theaters of operations.
Pilatus accompanies bombardments
The first track leads to Afghanistan. Purchased by Americans, Swiss Pilatus planes were used there as reconnaissance vehicles for bombing by the regular army. These were to target the Taliban. According to the villagers interviewed on the spot, however, there are civilians among the victims.
A former member of the Afghan Ministry of Defense assured SRF, on condition of anonymity, that a PC-12 participated in each strike: “It was mandatory, it had to confirm the target.” However, the Pilatus is not considered in Switzerland as a military device, nor even for dual use, civilian and military.
TempsPresent has established the role of this aircraft in great detail in an operation. We also found two of these devices in the hands of the Taliban, who have regained power.
>> Read the full survey: A Swiss Pilatus involved in a deadly bombardment in Afghanistan
Swiss assault rifles in Yemen
In Yemen, the population is caught between the Houthi rebels and a coalition led by Saudi Arabia. It supports the loyalist forces by regularly striking the country and carrying out land operations. The war has already claimed tens of thousands of victims. The country is bloodless and famine threatens, while the Saudis have established a naval and air blockade.
The images of an operation by the Saudi naval forces are unequivocal: soldiers, armed with Sig Sauer 551, deploy on Yemeni territory. These assault rifles, manufactured in the canton of Schaffhausen, were delivered to Saudi Arabia before 2009. In 2021, the Swiss Parliament nevertheless refused to suspend the sale of war material to the kingdom.
>> Read the full survey: Swiss rifles at the heart of a “dirty war” in Yemen
In the favelas
The last lead of our investigation took us to Brazil. Switzerland exported 30 Piranha tanks there. These armored personnel carriers are produced in Thurgau by the Mowag company. The Brazilian authorities had motivated this order by a peacekeeping operation in Haiti.
Only four made the trip. The others were regularly deployed in the favelas of Rio. Law enforcement and drug traffickers are engaged in a merciless battle there.
TempsPresent went there. The army then offered us a demonstration of the use of the Swiss Piranhas. Some tanks had been equipped with an armed turret.
Transformed, more offensive, the machines of Mowag were used in particular in the favela of Maré. In this neighborhood, the drug war regularly rages. Vitor Santiago Borges paid the price. On the night of February 12, 2015, after watching a soccer game with friends, he found himself in the middle of a shootout. The army was in full operation, Piranha in support. Vitor received several bullets, which left him paralyzed and had his leg amputated. He does not understand what justifies the use of war material in the favela. “Here we have a civil war. The Brazilian citizen does not need such powerful military machines.”
The transformation of the tanks, their use in the favelas, the civilian victims will not have prevented Mowag from continuing to deliver its armored vehicles. The State Secretariat for the Economy, which carried out on-site inspections, considered that there was nothing to prevent it.
Cécile Tran-Tien with Tybalt Félix, Dimitri Zufferey
