Selling Good Weaponry to Bad Clients : Finally, a Bonn clampdown increasingly demanded by a scandalized German public

Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government, embarrassed by disclosures that German industries played a major role in developing Iraq’s unconventional war-making capacity, is finally moving to tighten controls over illicit weapon exports. The action, long sought by the opposition Social Democrats and now increasingly demanded by a scandalized German public, won’t affect Saddam Hussein’s immediate arsenal of chemical and possibly biological weapons. It is nonetheless welcome. The end of the Persian Gulf War is unlikely to see Iraq or its neighbors suddenly taking a turn toward pacifism. It’s too late in this war to keep terror weapons out of ruthless hands. But it’s not too soon to start acting to curb their future spread.

At least nine German companies are under investigation for allegedly violating export-control laws. Germany’s press, among other sources, has reported that German firms and technicians were instrumental in aiding Iraq’s development of its own chemical weapon industry and an arsenal of chemical and nerve agents that some Soviet officials say totals tens of thousands of tons. It also appears that German technicians were responsible for extending the range of Iraq’s Soviet-supplied Scud missiles, a technical advance that has put western Israel as well as Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh within their reach.

An Israel threatened by Iraqi weapons developed with German help, including poison gas with its unforgettably tragic historical overtones, has evoked popular as well as official remorse in Germany. In a tangible if ironic response, the Kohl government is delivering $670 million in military aid to Israel, including gas masks, poison-gas antidotes and gas-proof vehicles. But such defensive measures, while necessary, are no substitute for a rigorous policy to control the illegal export of weapons and weapon-making technology.

This is not by any means a responsibility that falls on Germany alone. Iraq has had plenty of help from many countries in building up its war-making potential, because Iraq has had the cash to pay for some of the most advanced military technology available on the world market. Lax laws, feeble enforcement, official connivance and deception and private greed have all played a role. U.N. Security Council resolutions call for a stable and peaceful Persian Gulf to emerge from the present turmoil. Among other things, that will require strong international controls over the future flow of weapons into the region. Germany seems ready to make a useful start in that direction.