March 3, 200521 yr From http://www.defensenews.com Estonia To Probe Arms Transport on Sunken Ferry By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, TALLINN The Estonian government has set up a commission to investigate reports that the doomed passenger ferry that sunk in 1994 had transported military equipment, the government announced March 3. “The aim of the expert commission is to look into the possible transport of weapons, which a Swedish inquiry has established,” a government spokesman said, adding that it would present a final report by Sept. 1. The panel is headed by a state prosecutor and includes representatives of other law-enforcement agencies. Swedish reports in January claimed radar and listening equipment left behind in the Baltic states by departing Soviet forces had been seized by Swedish intelligence and secretly taken to Sweden aboard the Estonia in the weeks preceding the calamity, although there was none on board when the ferry sank in the Baltic Sea in heavy storms, taking the lives of 852 passengers. In 1997, a mixed Swedish, Finnish and Estonian enquiry committee concluded that the catastrophe was due to a forward ramp not having been properly secured, so that the car deck was flooded. Meanwhile the Estonian parliament is debating a draft resolution on setting up a parliamentary commission to investigate the allegations over military equipment. According to the opposition Centre Party, which proposed the bill, there was “public information that the Swedish defense forces and one Estonian company secretly transported Russian battle equipment and military electronics at least twice in 1994 out of Estonia to Sweden on board the Estonia ferry.” “Parliamentary scrutiny is required to establish the truth about the events 10 years ago,” a party spokesman said.
March 4, 200521 yr Thank good the swedish didn't put the concret sarkopharg over the Estonia, as they have planned to make investigations impossible. Regards René
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