Indian electronics firm faces US export sanctions

C K Arora in Washington

The Bharat Electronics Limited of Bangalore is facing export curbs from the US commerce department. The Americans suspect the company is contributing to India's missile development, a US daily has said, quoting senior officials.

The Journal Commerce has said the naming of the Indian electronics maker will mark the second time that the Clinton administration has publicly identified a foreign entity under a new disclosure policy designed to warn exporters of proliferation risks known to US intelligence agencies.

Publication against BEL is expected to appear in the federal register next week, the daily adds.

Officials, at a briefing, told industry representatives that the export restrictions would take the form of requiring individual licence review for all items sold to BEL.

The company makes electronics for rocket and launch vehicles used by the Indian Space Research Organisation, points out the Journal, quoting the risk report published by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

The Journal quoted Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary, Export Enforcement, Ian Baird as having said that "BEL is being cited for support of proliferation activities in India."

"India has a very active missile programme and a potential nuclear programme," Baird claimed.

It says the controls are far more sweeping than those imposed in February on Israel's Ben-Gurion University, which was barred from buying high-performance computers without a licence review.

The broad rule for all exports is reminiscent of US sanctions against the ISRO in 1992 that resulted from Russia's sale of rocket boosters to the umbrella space and defence agency.

Despite protests from high-tech exporters, Washington slapped a unilateral embargo on the space research organisation and all its branch agencies for over two years, using controls under the ''enhanced proliferation control initiative'' to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction. ISRO insisted that the rockets were for peaceful purposes.

The Journal also quotes Wisconsin Project Director Gary Milhollin as having said that the public naming of BEL was ''long overdue''.

''These guys make the electronic brains of guidance systems for the Indian rocket and missile programme,'' Milhollin said, adding that technology crosses over quickly from civilian to military applications within ISRO.

According to a US defence department report last year, India ''heavily used technological assistance and parts from western firms'' in developing its Prithvi short-range and Agni medium-range missile which may be able to fly 2000 km.

Behind the public listing of BEL is a private struggle involving state department, intelligence agencies, exporters and countries, including Russia and China, the Journal says.

UNI