Norway charged with 'hypocrisy' over Iraq war

The Norwegian government was accused of hypocrisy Tuesday, after reports that it authorized the Defense Department to lend military equipment to the US just 10 days before the US led the invasion of Iraq.

Stale Ulriksen, assistant director of the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI), said the case shows that Norway is so dependent on the US that the government could not refuse the loan of equipment 'central for modern warfare'.

"It directly defies the policies the government stood for at that time," Ulriksen said.

He said that it made the Norwegian government look 'hypocritical' as the equipment was loaned at a time when it publicly claimed to be opposed to the war.

According to Oslo daily Aftenposten, the equipment, high-tech laser systems used to help the US to define bombing targets, was provided without the knowledge of parliament's full foreign relations committee.

The Iraq war Iraq was strongly opposed by a majority of Norwegians.

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik linked his government's opposition to the invasion to the United Nations refusal to back it.

But the equipment was said to have been sent to a US marine base in Kuwait less than two weeks before the invasion in the spring of 2003.

It was not returned to Norway until last summer.

Defending the government's position, Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik confirmed the 'loan' had been made but insisted that it it was common to lend out such equipment to allies.

"It would have been more sensational if Norway had refused to deliver such equipment to an ally," Klepsvik said.

Asbjorn Eide, senior researcher at Oslo's Center for Human Rights, said that the case was 'inflammatory under international law'.

At the time the equipment was sent to US forces, it was clear that the UN Security Council would not approve the invasion, Eide said.

He said that Norway and the US have a long history of lending military equipment back and forth, but that the government must have known the lasers would be used in a war that Norway officially opposed.

It 'curious and worrisome' that Parliament's foreign relations committee was not informed of the loan, Eide said.

"This was a very special situation that should have set off some alarms," he said.

He said it indicated 'only a limited number of our politicians found this acceptable, and that they didn't dare take up the case in full openness'.