Arnin still gets I3edfords
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BRITISH heavy vehicles are still being supplied to Field Marshal Amin's regime in Uganda it was revealed this week. And delivery of the vehicles is likely to be continued because they are called "non-strategic" by the Crown Agents who corttplete the deals.
The vehicles — all Bedfords — were paid for in advance by the Ugandan dictator and have been delivered in batches since 1974.
Nearly 40 vehicles, at present standing on land near the Bedford works, at Luton, are described as "the tail-end" of an. original order for 120.
'Innocuous'
A Crown Agents spokesman told CM this week: "These orders go back some years — I would have thought that a commercial vehicle was a pretty innocuous thing to export.
"Obviously, we wouldn't get an export licence for any strategic material. After all, it's not as though we are exporting atom bombs and we are being paid in advance." Many of the vehicles left the Bedford works more than a year ago and were sent to Reynolds Boughton at Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire to have bodies fitted before being shipped to Uganda.
A Bedford spokesman said that, as far as the company as concerned, the vehicles had been ordered by Crown Agents: "They are our customers."
The export of British vehicles goes on despite pressure from a group of MPs who want links with Uganda severed.
Last year, Britain carried on trade worth £42 million with the former colony. This breaks down to £12 million worth of goods going to Uganda and £30 million being sent to the UK.