Countermotions by Jürgen Grässlin

Regarding item 3 on the agenda:
The members of the executive board are not discharged.

Substantiation:

The Executive Board of Heckler & Koch AG had originally assured us shareholders and the public that the »Green Country Strategy« would be consistently adhered to in arms exports. Only »the good guys« in NATO states, NATO-associated states or EU states would be supplied with small arms.

This was confirmed after CDE under Nicolas Walewski recently took over the share package of the previous majority shareholder Andreas Heeschen. A press released by H&K on 17 July 2020 stated that the company still stands by the »Green Country Strategy«. But what do such promises count if the real arms export policy in fiscal 2019 blatantly contradicts the promises? The promise to only deliver »to the good guys« turns out to be a hollow phrase.

At present, the French armed forces, as the supposed »the good guys«, are being supplied with 102,000 HK416F assault rifles and 10,767 HK269F grenade launchers, accessories, ammunition and spare parts. In the national armed forces, which include the French Foreign Legion, the old FAMAS assault rifles are being replaced by modern HK416Fs as »Arme Individuelle Future (AIF)«. 

France’s armed forces have fought and are continuing to fight in former colonies, among others. The Foreign Legion, feared as the toughest and most ruthless military special unit in the world, is known to murder in operational areas around the globe. Their missions pursue French power and economic interests. After the retirement of FAMAS rifles, units of the Foreign Legion could in future shoot and murder with H&K weapons all over the world.

Likewise, British and US special units – as »the good guys« equipped with H&K weapons – are conducting combat operations on battlefields all over the world, which are undertaken without any moral and ethical standards and some are illegal. In the USA the »Black-Lives-Matter-Movement« laments the unrestrained and illegal killing of black US citizens by mostly white US policemen. Beyond special units, US police officers also have H&K weapons.

It is to be feared that the undermining of the self-imposed »Green Country Strategy«, which is propagated to improve the image of the company, will continue to be practiced in the same way as it was in 2019. The latest low points are the small arms exports to Singapore and South Korea, which H&K applied for and which were approved by the Federal Security Council at the beginning of July 2020. Both countries are neither EU nor NATO members or associated states. 

According to the human rights report of Amnesty International, Singapore is being further de-democratized, human and civil rights are being further dismantled, the death penalty has been and is being carried out. South Korea is in military conflict with North Korea, violent clashes can occur at any time – after the export also involving H&K weapons.

Conclusion: In the 2019 financial year, the H&K Management Board again failed to meet its own standards and objectives.

Note: It should also be noted that the Special Forces Command (KSK) of the Bundeswehr, as a military unit of the »good guys«, has been and will be comprehensively armed with small arms by H&K. Leading media outlets, such as DER SPIEGEL, consider the KSK to be part of the »dark side of the STATE POWER«. Reasons for this include Hitler greetings, Wehrmacht depositions and hidden weapon stacks. 

In June 2020, a KSK captain informed Federal Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer in a letter about right-wing extremist grievances at the KSK. These were presented as being profound and structural. Right-wing extremist tendencies were claimed to have been »collectively ignored or even tolerated«. This very KSK has been comprehensively armed by Heckler & Koch with pistols, machine pistols, assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles. These include the P8 Combat, P12 (HK USP Tactical Offshoots), the P30, 40 mm grenade pistol, MP5, MP7, UMP, G36, AG36 grenade launcher, HK416, MG4, MG5 and G8 (HK21).

After »numerous right-wing extremist incidents« the second KSK command company was disbanded (Sources: DER SPIEGEL, 08.08.2020, p. 8 and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando_Spezialkr%C3%A4fte#Bewaffnung). A serious distancing of the H&K board from right-wing extremists in the Bundeswehr and KSK has still not taken place.

For the reasons stated above, we ask the shareholders of H&K AG: Join our countermotions and transfer your voting rights to the »Critical Shareholders of Heckler & Koch«, which involves a number of organizations through the »Aktion Aufschrei – Stoppt den Waffenhandel!« / Action Cry Out – Stop the Arms Trade! (RIB e.V., DFG-VK, Ohne Rüstung leben, pax christi, IPPNW, urgewald, other peace initiatives etc.).

Contact Details and Information: cc ArmsInformationCentre (RIB e.V.) with the GLOBAL NET – STOP THE ARMS TRADE, Stühlingerstr. 7, 79106 Freiburg, Germany (www.rib-ev.de / www.gn-stat.org) and Ethical Shareholders Germany.

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Regarding item 4 on the agenda:
The members of the supervisory board are not discharged.

Substantiation:

The chaotic situation at the Heckler & Koch AG did not settle down in the 2019 fiscal year and has not ended to this day. This fact is not only due to the blatantly wrong decisions of the supervisory board. The change of the main shareholder from Andreas Heeschen to the Luxembourg industrial holding company »Compagnie de Développement de l’Eau« (CDE) with Nicolas Walewski from France is also partly responsible. The tough conflicts, the seemingly dubious shifts in money and shares, and the personnel-related decisions that have taken place behind the scenes have not been disclosed to us shareholders – transparency is absent. 

We, the Critical Shareholders, measure the announcement of the new H&K monarch Walewski in the press release of 17.07.2020, according to which CDE will continue to stand by the »Green Country Strategy« by the actual arms exports. For it is to be feared that in reality – as is the case with other French-led arms-producing and -exporting companies – the arms export policy will continue to be primarily profit-oriented in future.

It is to be feared that the undermining of the self-imposed »Green Country Strategy«, which is propagated to improve the image of the company, will continue to be practiced in the same way as it was in 2019. This includes the export of pistols, submachine guns, grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles to special units of NATO partners France, Great Britain and the USA, respectively. And this despite their repeatedly inhuman and partly illegal military operations all over the world.

In addition, it should be noted that the Special Forces Command (KSK) of the German Armed Forces have also been comprehensively armed with small arms from Heckler & Koch despite frightening right-wing extremist tendencies.

In addition, the Federal Security Council approved small arms exports to Singapore and South Korea outside of the EU and NATO in July 2020 – probably at H&K’s request. See the counter-motion of the Critical Shareholders* of Heckler & Koch on the discharge of the executive board. 

For years the personnel carousel at H&K has been in full swing. Alleged »Experts« are hired, highly praised and then »released« again. The list of those who left voluntarily or were made to leave is immensely long.

Only one year ago, at the 2019 annual general meeting, Harald Kujat was elected as a member of the supervisory board and shortly afterwards as chairman of the supervisory board – he succeeded Dieter John. According to the H&K press release at the time, the retired general »will from now on strengthen the company with his extraordinary expertise and his voice that is respected beyond the borders of Germany« (source: H&K press release of 12.07.2019). Kujat failed not only in the task of securing the follow-up order for the G36 rifle for H&K through his contacts in the Ministry of Defence. Apparently, he was also up against Walewski’s financial policy.

With this annual general meeting alone, Nicolaus Bocklandt and Martin Heiner Sorg are leaving the supervisory board in addition to chairman Kujat. Heckler & Koch has long been Germany’s arms producer with the highest fluctuation on the management level.

Moreover, the H&K board of directors continues to fail blatantly on a moral and ethical level: H&K still refuses to pay the fine of 3.7 million euros in accordance with the verdict of the Stuttgart Regional Court. This had been imposed by the Stuttgart judiciary in February 2019 – after the criminal charges filed by myself (2010) and my attorney Holger Rothbauer (2012) – because of the illegal G36 rifle exports to the forbidden provinces of war in Mexico. 

Worse still, to this day the supervisory board refuses to set up a compensation fund – or even a kind of social fund, as proposed by H&K itself – for the victims of H&K’s weapons export policy. Meanwhile, H&K weapons continue to be fired and murdered a thousand times worldwide.

All these misdevelopments and misdirected actions are the result of fundamental strategy disaster. Because in 2019, the H&K management has also failed to set the course towards arms conversion, the conversion to a sensible, sustainable production.

For the reasons stated above, we ask the shareholders of H&K AG: Join our countermotions and transfer your voting rights to the »Critical Shareholders of Heckler & Koch«, which involves a number of organizations through the »Aktion Aufschrei – Stoppt den Waffenhandel!« / Action Cry Out – Stop the Arms Trade! (RIB e.V., DFG-VK, Ohne Rüstung leben, pax christi, IPPNW, urgewald, other peace initiatives etc.).

Contacts and Information: cc ArmsInformationCentre (RIB e.V.) with the GLOBAL NET – STOP THE ARMS TRADE, Stühlingerstr. 7, 79106 Freiburg, (www.rib-ev.de / www.gn-stat.org) and Ethical Shareholders Germany.