Conference turris::scandia

114.0. "Danish ship with arms cargo detained" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Wed Jun 18 1986 17:49

Associated Press Wed 18-JUN-1986 11:42                    Denmark-Panama Ship

       Officials Say Danish Ship is Detained with Cargo of Soviet Arms
    
                              By ALINA GUERRERO
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - A Danish ship was being detained for
    carrying 200 tons of undeclared Soviet-made weapons, ammunition, trucks
    and other military equipment through the Panama Canal, authorities said
    today. 
    
    The Defense Forces issued a statement saying the 400-ton Pia Vesta was
    detained Saturday in Balboa, the port at the Pacific Ocean entrance to
    the canal, after a check showed the cargo on board did not correspond
    to that listed on the ship's manifest. 
    
    The Pia Vesta's captain, Johannes Christiansen, 47, and the seven crew
    members were being held for questioning, the statement said. It said
    six of the crewmen were Danish and one was Indonesian. Panamanian law
    bars vessels from transiting the canal with undeclared cargo. 
    
    Authorities refused to disclose immediately the destination of the
    military equipment. La Estrella de Panama, an independent newspaper
    that often reflects government views, said the military hardware was
    destined for the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
    guerrillas in El Salvador, who have been fighting for power for the
    past 6 1/2 years. The newspaper gave no source for its information. 
    
    Sven-Olov Ruben Fahlgren, Denmark's consul in Panama City, said in an
    interview with Danish national radio that the ship's representative
    said the cargo was picked up in Rostock, East Germany. East Germany is
    an ally of the Soviet Union, which supplies arms to Nicaragua. 
    
    News reports in Panama said the Pia Vesta went through the Panama
    Canal, navigated down to Peruvian territorial waters without touching
    port, then changed course and made for Balboa again where it was
    detained. The reports said Panamanian authorities had received a tip
    from Peruvian authorities that the ship carried suspicious cargo. 
    
    The Defense Forces statement said the Pia Vesta's undeclared cargo
    included machine guns, rocket-launchers and ammunition. "It had 200
    tons of military equipment," Fahlgren said in the radio interview. 
    
    The Register of Ships lists the Pia Vesta as belonging to Jorgen Jensen
    of Denmark. Jensen has been accused by Danish authorities of illegally
    carrying weapons to the government of South Africa in 1981 and 1982.
    That case is expected to come up in a Danish court later this summer.