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Post Last Edit by hyazinth79 at 1-5-2010 17:26
1 div. kuching ,penrissen camp bt 8 , :@ no kau cr sendiri,. ha kau lak , base kat mana:@ |
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kedai mamk batu 7, markas br di kota samarahan, hhehehe |
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Post Last Edit by razhar at 1-5-2010 18:27
1 div. kuching ,penrissen camp bt 8 , no kau cr sendiri,. ha kau lak , base kat mana
hyazinth79 Post at 1/5/2010 17:24 
ok,aku AW,kem 8brig,Regt 506...anggota sejak tahun 1991.... so jgn anggap aku ni pure civvie...dan ko boleh cari kat mymil porem untuk tgk gambar passing out aku.... |
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The French Connection
SPECIAL REPORTS
Friday, 14 May 2010 Super Admin
A Paris investigation opens up a vast network of defense industry bribes in Asia
But according to widely published facts investigated by separate teams of French magistrates and lawyers, pulled together into a single narrative, the story appears to go well beyond Thales, Taiwan and France to reach deep into the governments of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and others.
Written by John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel
After nearly two decades, Taiwan's 1991 purchase of six French Lafayette-class stealth frigates has finally come back to haunt pretty much everyone involved in the deal.
Both countries, plus the French defense contractor Thales and DCN, the government-owned naval manufacturer that built the frigates have been snared in the mess. A French court ruled last week that Thales and the French government must pay Taiwan as much as US$861 million for bribery charges and repayments for nonperformance.
But according to widely published facts investigated by separate teams of French magistrates and lawyers, pulled together into a single narrative, the story appears to go well beyond Thales, Taiwan and France to reach deep into the governments of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and others. French government officials and defense contractors appear to have engaged in an intensive campaign to outfit many of the world's governments with frigates and Agosta-class Scorpene submarines manufactured by DCN's subsidiary Armaris.
The key to bringing the frigate scandal into the open was Article 18 of the contract, which made vendors liable to repay all bribes, plus associated interest and legal fees. The standard anti-corruption clause is thought to be in the contracts governing sales of Scorpenes to India, Pakistan and Malaysia, Renaud Semerdjian, a French lawyer investigating the Malaysia case, told Asia Sentinel, although he said he doesn't have access to the contracts. If the clause appears in Malaysian and other contracts, it could help bring other scandals into the open – although, unlike Taiwan, Malaysia has shown no inclination to investigate the case.
"The French state's perception that bribery and corruption, and the use of perhaps more extreme ‘direct action' when required, can be an advantage to business reflects the country's recent past," said a UK-based security specialist. "Within this context, securing arms deals with public money that serve the political interests of a narrow elite while subsidizing industries otherwise struggling to survive is viewed as less of a crime and more of a duty."
Nowhere is that more fully borne out than in the Taiwan story. According to published accounts it involves allegations of the murders of as many as eight people and reaches up to such luminaries as the late French President Francois Mitterand, the former general secretary of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Party during its previous tenure in power and the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Beijing.
The case was stymied for years in French courts for "lack of evidence" although a variety of French officials including former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas had told newspapers that Mitterand okayed the payment of US$500 million in bribes to secure the frigate contract. But what has begun to emerge with the court judgment is a story of corruption so pervasive that it seems more like a movie plot than a real case and paints a picture of French politicians and government defense officials as having placed a separate cash register on arms sales designed to benefit themselves and corrupt governments around the world.
According to published sources, the story began when the French state-owned Elf Aquitaine conglomerate standard paid bribes through Thomson-CSF, which changed its name to Thales in 2000. The money was to persuade Taiwanese officials to drop a plan to buy cheaper South Korean frigates and for French authorities to approve the sale of more expensive Lafayette-class ones equipped with Thomson-CSF electronic gear. A plan to have the frigates built in Taiwan was also scrapped shortly after the deal was signed, and the work was reassigned to France.
SUMBER |
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Offices searched in French arms sale to Malaysia: source
(AFP) – 1 day ago
PARIS — French financial police have searched the offices of naval arms manufacturer DCNS and industrial group Thales in connection with a probe into the sale of submarines to Malaysia, a judicial source said Tuesday.
Documents were seized in the operation, which was carried out last week, the source added.
Thales declined to comment on the matter.
DCNS told AFP it "neither confirms nor denies this information."
"A judicial investigation is under way and we can make no comment."
The Paris prosecutor's office in March opened an investigation into the 2002 sale following a complaint lodged last year by the Malaysian human rights group Suaram.
The group alleges that Armaris, a subsidiary of Thales and the DCN, as the DCNS was formerly known, paid a commission of 114 million euros (140 million dollars) to the Malaysian company Perimekar, linked to people close to now Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Razak in 2002 was defence minister and was responsible for negotiating the contract.
Since 2000, the payment of commissions on contracts linked to foreign leaders amounts to corruption under French law.
The DCN in 2002 joined Thales and Spanish naval construction group Navantia in a contract to sell Malaysia three submarines for around one billion euros.
A spokesman for the Malaysian prime minister's office in late April insisted there was "no case" to answer.
He maintained that the deal had been free of graft and that Perimekar had not improperly benefited from it.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hzOukaDeB0qvUcKtRk1Mt1iJHFJg |
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French Military Attaches Leave Taiwan
Written by Our Correspondent
Tuesday, 01 June 2010
Fit of pique over having to pay massive fines over kickbacks?
A decision made public Monday in Taiwan that the French government is pulling defence personnel from the island over a court order to pay US$891 million to Taiwan because of a monumental scandal involving the sale of stealth frigates raises as many questions as it answers.
According to Taiwan media reports, the technical team is being pulled out of Taiwan after 15 years and signals a cut-off of direct military contacts between the two counties. It is said to be an expression of pique against the administration of Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou.
"One could speculate that the case may offer the French government the opportunity to disengage from Taiwan and deepen its ties with China," said GM Greenwood, a security consultant with Allan and Associates. "The Franco-Taiwan connection is unique as it appears counter to wider French national interests and is not rooted in any legacy issues, such the Taiwan-US relationship.
"An upcoming test of this theory may be clarified at the bi-annual Paris Air Show in June of 2011, which is often used to showcase large defense and civilian aviation deals. Any large deal between China and France could indicate a quid quo pro on the removal of the French military team in Taiwan," Greenwood said.
The decision to leave may also be a demonstration of anger over the fact that Taiwan is also refusing to back away from an investigation into the purchase of Mirage fighter jets in 1993 in which the Air Force paid 50 percent more for the aircraft than the market price at the time. Taiwanese authorities have long believed French arms merchants had been involved in the same kinds of bribery and kickbacks over the purchase of the planes. The same middle-man who was involved in the purchase of the frigates was involved in the purchase of the Mirages.
Taiwan bought 60 of the aircraft from France, along with missiles, at a cost of US$5.2 billion. France has since had to deliver more than US$3 million in compensation for parts and maintenance for the planes, some of which developed engine problems.
Taiwan won a massive US$861 million payment from the defence giant Thales, which is 27 percent owned by the French government, as a sanction for the payments of kickbacks to French, Taiwanese and Chinese officials in the purchase of the Lafayette-class stealth frigates in the 1990s. The Taiwanese Navy filed the case in 2001, alleging it violated Article 18 of the contract, which banned the payment of commissions, which are thinly veiled kickbacks.
An army of French lawyers and magistrates is also pursuing a series of scandals involving Thales, the government-owned contractor DCN and top French politicians. The cases stretch from Taiwan to Malaysia and Pakistan to India and involve kickbacks related to defense contracts to outfit many of the world's navies with frigates and Agosta-class Scorpene submarines manufactured by DCN's subsidiary Armaris.
According to published accounts, the Taiwan case involved allegations of the murders of as many as eight people and reached up to such luminaries as the late French President Francois Mitterand, the former general secretary of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Party during its previous tenure in power and the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Beijing.
The accounts say the French state-owned Elf Aquitaine conglomerate paid bribes through Thomson-CSF, which changed its name to Thales in 2000. The money allegedly was to persuade Taiwanese officials to drop a plan to buy cheaper South Korean frigates and for French authorities to approve the sale of more expensive Lafayette-class ones equipped with Thomson-CSF electronic gear. A plan to have the frigates built in Taiwan was also scrapped shortly after the deal was signed, and the work was reassigned to France. An additional amount was allegedly paid to Communist Party officials in China to remain quiescent about the arms sales to Taiwan.
A Taiwanese naval captain named Yin Ching-feng, who is believed to have been ready to blow the whistle on the case in 1993, was found floating in the ocean a few days later after his threat. Thomson-CSF's Taiwan agent Andrew Wang was eventually charged in absentia with the crime. He has long since disappeared. A long string of suspicious deaths followed. Yin's murder became one of Taiwan's most prominent unsolved murders of the 1990s. Wang's bank accounts, frozen in Switzerland, were later found to contain US$900 million.
According to the Taipei-based Liberty Times, the French army officer in charge of the technical team was being recalled to France in July but no replacement had been announced, showing the unit was facing abolition. The team played a key role in organizing visits and exchanges and awarding military export licenses for weapons sales to Taiwan.
Although initially the Taiwan defence ministry said there had been no change in the military arrangements between the two countries, the state-owned Taiwan Radio International, quoting defence ministry sources, appeared to confirm that the French military liaison office is to close.
While other French diplomatic personnel will remain, the removal of the formal French military link will be viewed as at least a signal from Paris regarding its discomfort over the case rather than a coincidence. France and Taiwan had virtually reached an agreement in late April on how to resolve the Lafayette case, according to the story, with Paris to supply new weapons and services as a method of compensation – raising the possibility that French taxpayers would be forced to pick up the bill for commercial corruption.
But Taiwan refused to compromise, the story said, because Ma Ying-Jeou had sought a ruling to prove that his government had not taken part in corrupt activities. The National Security Council said that despite the imminent withdrawal of the French team, a replacement was already being worked on, so the event would not influence future technical and military assistance for the frigates.
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2508&Itemid=164 |
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June 3, 2010
President Sarkozy named by inquiry into Pakistan submarine payments
Charles Bremner, Paris
President Sarkozy was caught up in a long-simmering kickbacks scandal yesterday when police in Luxembourg named him as the creator of a company that handled tens of millions of pounds in illegal funds.
An inquiry appears to implicate Mr Sarkozy in a case involving the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994. It will strengthen suspicions of French investigators that money from the contract was funnelled to finance a 1995 presidential campaign managed by Mr Sarkozy, who was then Budget Minister.
Two French judges believe that a dispute between France and Pakistan over unpaid commissions led Pakistani agents to bomb a bus carrying French-employed shipyard workers in Karachi in 2002. Fourteen people died in the attack, 11 of them French. The attack was originally blamed on al-Qaeda.
Last year Mr Sarkozy dismissed as fantasy allegations that money intended for secret commissions to middlemen during the sale of the submarines had been used to finance the 1995 campaign of Edouard Balladur. Mr Balladur, then the Prime Minister, was backed by Mr Sarkozy in an unsuccessful race against Jacques Chirac. After Mr Chirac won, he halted further payment of the submarine commissions, it has emerged from the French inquiry.
A parliamentary investigation has determined that £80 million in commissions was paid by DCN, France’s naval shipyards, to middlemen in the submarine deal. At the time, such commissions were not illegal in France but kickbacks, known as “retro-commissions”, were.
Luxembourg police, working for the French judges, said that, in 1994, Mr Sarkozy “directly supervised” the creation of a Luxembourg offshore company called Heine. Its purpose was to channel the secret payments.
“Eventually, part of the funds that passed through Luxembourg came back to France to finance French political campaigns,” the police report said.
“In 1995, references lead us to believe in the existence of a form of retro-commission to pay for political campaigns in France . . .”
“We stress that Edouard Balladur was a candidate in the 1995 presidential election against Jacques Chirac and that he was supported by part of the RPR [Gaullist party], including Nicolas Sarkozy.”
The President is immune from legal action while in office and there was little sense of political crisis in Paris yesterday. There was no comment from the Elysée Palace.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7142987.ece |
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Sale of submarines to Pakistan
Inquiry implicates Sarkozy
Paris—President Sarkozy was caught up in a long-simmering kickbacks scandal when police in Luxembourg named him as the creator of a company that handled tens of millions of pounds in illegal funds. An inquiry appears to implicate Sarkozy in a case involving the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994. It will strengthen suspicions of French investigators that money from the contract was funneled to finance a 1995 presidential campaign managed by Mr Sarkozy, who was then Budget Minister.
Two French judges believe that a dispute between France and Pakistan over unpaid commissions led Pakistani agents to bomb a bus carrying French-employed shipyard workers in Karachi in 2002. Fourteen people died in the attack, 11 of them French. The attack was originally blamed on al-Qaeda.
Last year Mr Sarkozy dismissed as fantasy allegations that money intended for secret commissions to middlemen during the sale of the submarines had been used to finance the 1995 campaign of Edouard Balladur.
Mr Balladur, then the Prime Minister, was backed by Mr Sarkozy in an unsuccessful race against Jacques Chirac. After Mr Chirac won, he halted further payment of the submarine commissions, it has emerged from the French inquiry.
A parliamentary investigation has determined that £80 million in commissions was paid by DCN, France’s naval shipyards, to middlemen in the submarine deal. At the time, such commissions were not illegal in France but kickbacks, known as “retro-commissions”, were.
Luxembourg police, working for the French judges, said that, in 1994, Mr Sarkozy “directly supervised” the creation of a Luxembourg offshore company called Heine. Its purpose was to channel the secret payments.
“Eventually, part of the funds that passed through Luxembourg came back to France to finance French political campaigns,” the police report said. In 1995, references lead us to believe in the existence of a form of retro-commission to pay for political campaigns in France . . .” “We stress that Edouard Balladur was a candidate in the 1995 presidential election against Jacques Chirac and that he was supported by part of the RPR [Gaullist party], including Nicolas Sarkozy.
The President is immune from legal action while in office and there was little sense of political crisis in Paris. There was no comment from the Elysée Palace.—INP
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=35202
hang pa buta?  |
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May 31, 2010
France to close military office
TAIPEI - FRANCE has decided to close a low-key military liaison office in Taiwan in retaliation over a ruling in a controversial arms deal, Taiwanese media said on Monday.
The office, which arranges visits by military personnel and facilitates the island's acquisition of French-made weaponry, will be shut in July, the Liberty Times newspaper reported.
The office is part of the French Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy of France in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. The institute declined comment when approached by AFP.
The report came after a decision by an international court earlier this month to order French group Thales to pay back a huge sum that it overcharged Taiwan in a 1991 warship sale. A Paris-based court of arbitration said the money was to make up for unauthorised commissions paid to help Thomson-CSF, which later became Thales, win a deal to sell six Lafayette frigates to Taiwan.
Lawyers at Taiwan's defence ministry said Thales would pay an estimated US$861 million (S$1.2 billion) to Taiwan, including US$591 million for damages and US$270 million in interest and legal expenses. The arbitration results also led France to scrap its plan of arming the six Lafayette frigates with Aster, a French-made air defence system, the Liberty Times said.
The Thales company spearheaded the sale, but the main stake in the contract was held by French state-owned shipbuilder DCN. Several sources said the French state would have to pay 70 per cent of the penalty. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_533472.html
KERAjaan brani kaa nak saman?  |
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French Military Attaches Leave Taiwan
Written by Our Correspondent
Tuesday, 01 June 2010
Fit of pique over having to pay massive fines over kickbacks?
A decision made public Monday in Taiwan that the French government is pulling defence personnel from the island over a court order to pay US$891 million to Taiwan because of a monumental scandal involving the sale of stealth frigates raises as many questions as it answers.
According to Taiwan media reports, the technical team is being pulled out of Taiwan after 15 years and signals a cut-off of direct military contacts between the two counties. It is said to be an expression of pique against the administration of Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou.
"One could speculate that the case may offer the French government the opportunity to disengage from Taiwan and deepen its ties with China," said GM Greenwood, a security consultant with Allan and Associates. "The Franco-Taiwan connection is unique as it appears counter to wider French national interests and is not rooted in any legacy issues, such the Taiwan-US relationship.
"An upcoming test of this theory may be clarified at the bi-annual Paris Air Show in June of 2011, which is often used to showcase large defense and civilian aviation deals. Any large deal between China and France could indicate a quid quo pro on the removal of the French military team in Taiwan," Greenwood said.
The decision to leave may also be a demonstration of anger over the fact that Taiwan is also refusing to back away from an investigation into the purchase of Mirage fighter jets in 1993 in which the Air Force paid 50 percent more for the aircraft than the market price at the time. Taiwanese authorities have long believed French arms merchants had been involved in the same kinds of bribery and kickbacks over the purchase of the planes. The same middle-man who was involved in the purchase of the frigates was involved in the purchase of the Mirages.
Taiwan bought 60 of the aircraft from France, along with missiles, at a cost of US$5.2 billion. France has since had to deliver more than US$3 million in compensation for parts and maintenance for the planes, some of which developed engine problems.
Taiwan won a massive US$861 million payment from the defence giant Thales, which is 27 percent owned by the French government, as a sanction for the payments of kickbacks to French, Taiwanese and Chinese officials in the purchase of the Lafayette-class stealth frigates in the 1990s. The Taiwanese Navy filed the case in 2001, alleging it violated Article 18 of the contract, which banned the payment of commissions, which are thinly veiled kickbacks.
An army of French lawyers and magistrates is also pursuing a series of scandals involving Thales, the government-owned contractor DCN and top French politicians. The cases stretch from Taiwan to Malaysia and Pakistan to India and involve kickbacks related to defense contracts to outfit many of the world's navies with frigates and Agosta-class Scorpene submarines manufactured by DCN's subsidiary Armaris.
According to published accounts, the Taiwan case involved allegations of the murders of as many as eight people and reached up to such luminaries as the late French President Francois Mitterand, the former general secretary of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Party during its previous tenure in power and the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Beijing.
The accounts say the French state-owned Elf Aquitaine conglomerate paid bribes through Thomson-CSF, which changed its name to Thales in 2000. The money allegedly was to persuade Taiwanese officials to drop a plan to buy cheaper South Korean frigates and for French authorities to approve the sale of more expensive Lafayette-class ones equipped with Thomson-CSF electronic gear. A plan to have the frigates built in Taiwan was also scrapped shortly after the deal was signed, and the work was reassigned to France. An additional amount was allegedly paid to Communist Party officials in China to remain quiescent about the arms sales to Taiwan.
A Taiwanese naval captain named Yin Ching-feng, who is believed to have been ready to blow the whistle on the case in 1993, was found floating in the ocean a few days later after his threat. Thomson-CSF's Taiwan agent Andrew Wang was eventually charged in absentia with the crime. He has long since disappeared. A long string of suspicious deaths followed. Yin's murder became one of Taiwan's most prominent unsolved murders of the 1990s. Wang's bank accounts, frozen in Switzerland, were later found to contain US$900 million.
According to the Taipei-based Liberty Times, the French army officer in charge of the technical team was being recalled to France in July but no replacement had been announced, showing the unit was facing abolition. The team played a key role in organizing visits and exchanges and awarding military export licenses for weapons sales to Taiwan.
Although initially the Taiwan defence ministry said there had been no change in the military arrangements between the two countries, the state-owned Taiwan Radio International, quoting defence ministry sources, appeared to confirm that the French military liaison office is to close.
While other French diplomatic personnel will remain, the removal of the formal French military link will be viewed as at least a signal from Paris regarding its discomfort over the case rather than a coincidence. France and Taiwan had virtually reached an agreement in late April on how to resolve the Lafayette case, according to the story, with Paris to supply new weapons and services as a method of compensation – raising the possibility that French taxpayers would be forced to pick up the bill for commercial corruption.
But Taiwan refused to compromise, the story said, because Ma Ying-Jeou had sought a ruling to prove that his government had not taken part in corrupt activities. The National Security Council said that despite the imminent withdrawal of the French team, a replacement was already being worked on, so the event would not influence future technical and military assistance for the frigates.
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2508&Itemid=164
awat negara kapir boleh siasat, negara islam tidak boleh? kenapa? apakah di sekeliling kita adalah org2 munafik?  |
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aiks?! mana ponen2 dah sorok? bunian sorok?  |
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kesian acong tak ada org nak layan.... |
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kat mesia ni mana penah cadangan solution dari pembangkang diterima
ntah aku pn xpernah tgk mn2 solution pembangkang diterima.... |
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civilian takleh masuk ke kapal selam ni ha? buat industri pelancongan je kalau takleh nyelam la..he3 |
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Kau tunggu Quessant sampai dari France. tu pun kalau navy bagi green light buat muzium. |
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kesian acong tak ada org nak layan....
Periuk_api1209 Post at 10-6-2010 00:52  |
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June 08, 2010 22:07 PM
Maintenance Cost Of Scorpene Submarines Yet To Be Finalised - Zahid
KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 (Bernama) -- The maintenance cost of the two Royal Malaysian Navy Scorpene submarines had yet to be finalised, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said the government was currently holding negotiations to get the best deals for the maintenance of the submarines.
"A claim that DCNS (France shipbuilder) had offered a three-year contract worth Euro 6 million or RM30 million to Boustead Naval Corporation Sdn Bhd is a slander and baseless," he said to a question from Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) when winding up debate at the Dewan Rakyat here Tuesday.
Ahmad Zahid also denied Tian Chua's claim that both submarines were equipped with navigation safety and combat systems, sensors and a periscope simulator.
The navy took delivery of the two Scorpene submarines costing RM3.4 billion from DCNS and its Spanish partner, Navantia last year.
The contract for the supply and delivery of Scorpene submarine navigation safety and combat systems, sensors and periscope simulators costing RM128.5 million was signed during the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2010, said Ahmad Zahid, adding that they were procurement of simulators used to train the submarine crew.
"The simulators were not built into the submarine but rather installed in the training room," he said.
Tian Chua claimed that the cost of maintaining the two submarines amounted RM270 million per year and DCNS had signed a contract worth RM128.5 million or Euro 27 million to supply the navigation safety and combat systems, sensors and periscope simulators.
-- BERNAMA |
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Monday, June 21, 2010
As public interest rises, French prosecutors intensify subs probe
Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
Amid growing public disquiet, French prosecutors are intensifying their probe into a series of corruption scandals involving state-controlled arms makers DCNS and Thales – vendors of naval ships to several Asian countries including two Scorpene submarines sold to the Malaysian government.
“The French people are getting very interested in the scandals and they are questioning why their politicians and firms are getting involved in unsavory activities just so that they can sell ships to a bunch of third world countries,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
“The questions of morality and ethics are being asked by the French NGOs, who have been campaigning against the rich helping themselves to more riches and benefiting at the expenses of the masses and the poor - especially those in the developing countries.”
Tian was in Paris last week together with several other prominent Malaysian activists. Kuala Lumpur-based NGO Suaram had lodged a complaint with the French authorities earlier this year.
They sought an update from the French police, who two weeks ago had raided the offices of DCNS and Thales, confiscating some documents to help in their probe of a RM5 billion submarines deal sealed between the two French firms and the Malaysian government in 2002.
Since then, allegations have erupted that the two firms may have paid some kick-backs to Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was the Defense Minister sanctioning the purchase at that time. The commission is believed to have been in the region of at least 114 million euros or RM540 million.The submarines were delivered last year.
Greed and murder
Like a similar case involving Taiwan, the Malaysian deal has been marred by a mysterious murder – that of a beautiful Mongolian translator Altantuyaa Shaaribuu. She had threatened to blow the whistle if she did not get her share of the commission from Najib’s close associate Razak Baginda. Altantuya, who could speak four languages including Russian, was believed to have acted as a go-between for the French firms and Baginda.
In Taiwan, as many as eight people are believed to have been murdered to stop them from exposing their case and even today, the current French government is unhappy with MaYing-Jeou’s administration for insisting on a full clean-up and has retaliated by withdrawing defense personnel from the island.
“That is not a wise move because more and more French people see these as despicable acts that their government should distance themselves from. The French taxpayers are also starting to wise up to the fact that they may end up footing the bill for the misdeeds of certain of their own political leaders, their naval firms and even the culprits in the foreign governments that got special deals from them,” Tian said.
Taxpayers demand compensation
The Taiwanese Navy took their case to the Paris-based International Court of Arbitration and won a massive US$861 million payment from the defense giant Thales, which is 27 percent owned by the French government, for sanctioning the payment of kickbacks to Taiwanese, Chinese and French officials in the purchase of the Lafayette-class stealth frigates in 1991.
The Taiwanese Navy filed the case in 2001, alleging it violated Article 18 of the contract signed with Thales, which banned the payment of commissions that are seen as thinly veiled kickbacks.
Taiwan also bought 60 Mirage fighter jets in 1993 from France, along with missiles, at a cost of US$5.2 billion amid talk it was paying 50 percent more than the market price at that time. Ma is also insisting on a full probe into these allegations. France has since had to deliver more than US$3 million in compensation for parts and maintenance for some of the planes which developed engine problems soon after delivery.
Apart from Malaysia and Taiwan, civil rights groups in India and Pakistan are also demanding similar compensation for kick-backs allegedly paid out by the French firms to corrupt government officials, forcing Indian and Pakistani taxpayers - just like those in Malaysia - to foot an inflated price for the arms ordered.
http://malaysia-chronicle.blogspot.com/2010/06/as-public-interest-rises-french.html |
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Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
Fitnah cina komunis DAP |
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Post time 1-5-2010 05:24 PM
Author
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