NEW DELHI: The Swedish government has told India that making public the secret portions of the national audit bureau’s report on the alleged kickbacks in the 1.3 billion Bofors Gun Deal would be “a serious breach of trust.”

This will undoubtedly affect the ability of the Swedish government to transmit other classified or sensitive documents to the government of India, as requested in the Indian note and letters rogatory of April 2, 1990,” the Swedish government said in a communication.

The communication dated May2 6 was given to the external affairs ministry by the Swedish Embassy.

Several Indians, including close associates of the former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi are said to have stashed away in Swiss Banks millions of dollars that they receive as kickbacks for having helped Bofors clinch the field gun deal.

In reply to the request for placing the entire report of the audit bureau in parliament, the Swedish government said, “The portions of the report which were not make public in 1987 by Sweden remain secret under the Swedish laws of secrecy and may not now be made public.

The portions of letter which were quoted by the prime minister while intervening in Parliament

Tuesday said that the reason for the secrecy classification was that the report contained sensitive economic information collected by the Bank of Sweden, the official release of which would harm important Swedish foreign trade interests,

The Swedish government takes a serious view of the statement the government of India that it proposes to place the full text of the classified Swedish national audit bureau report into the Bofors affairs before the Indian Parliament.

“If inspite of this the government of India goes ahead and publics the secret portions of the ‘Swedish national audit bureau report, the Swedish government will have to regard this as a serious breach of trust,” the communication said.

A note sent by the Indian foreign ministry to the Swedish Embassy hereonMay2 6 had said the government here believed that the entire text of the report of the ‘Swedish national audit bureau should be placed before the parliament of India.

There has also been widespread demand in the parliament of India that the full report should be placed before the parliament,” the Indian note said.

The note said “the positive decision” of the Swedish government to provide the full text of Eh Audit Bureau Report was deeply appreciated by the government of India.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 8, 1990