SAF armoured vehicles seized by HK ‘moved indoors’

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) armoured vehicles that have been impounded in Hong Kong were moved indoors early last month, said Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department yesterday, a day after a local daily reported the equipment was missing.

“The suspected controlled items are still kept at a customs storage place in Tuen Mun. They have been stored indoors since Dec 6,” South China Morning Post (SCMP) quoted a spokesman of the department as saying. “As the case is still under investigation, no further information is available.”

In its Monday report, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily said that the nine SAF Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles, which had been stored outdoors in a storage facility in Tuen Mun for weeks, went missing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said yesterday at a daily briefing that the Hong Kong government is handling the incident in accordance with relevant laws.

The vehicles were seized by Hong Kong Customs in November during what officials called a “routine inspection”. But media reports had suggested that they were acting on a tip-off from mainland security agents in Xiamen, where the shipment from Taiwan — after a routine military training exercise — had made a stop prior to Hong Kong.

The SAF had contracted APL, a unit of shipping giant CMA CGM Group which bought over homegrown company Neptune Orient Lines earlier this year, to transport the nine vehicles from Taiwan back to Singapore.

In a Facebook post on Dec 30, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said the SAF will learn from the incident and has already changed its practices to better protect the Republic’s military assets. He said all levels of government have been working for the past two months to effect the return of the Terrex vehicles “quietly and out of the limelight where it is more effective”. AGENCIES