'SA must boost nuke controls'

2004-09-18 09:08

Erika Gibson

Pretoria - South Africa has to drastically improve its export control on nuclear materials and equipment as countries such as Pakistan, which needs such equipment, have concentrated on getting controlled nuclear items via South Africa.

This is the opinion of the American Institute for Science and International Security (Isis), based on an evaluation of testimony in court in the prosecution of Asher Karni, an Israeli citizen who lives in South Africa.

Karni was arrested in the United States earlier this year on charges of allegedly importing and exporting detonators that could be used in nuclear weapons. A verdict has not been passed on Karni yet.

According to the evaluation, Karni imported the detonators under false pretences from the US and then had them delivered elsewhere, via Dubai.

Detonators of this kind also can be used for medical purposes; to shatter kidney stones, for example.

Big order aroused suspicions

Karni claimed the end-user of the detonators would be Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on the Witwatersrand.

A hospital normally would buy five or six detonators at a time, but Karni ordered 200, which made the US suppliers suspicious.

The suppliers told the authorities and Karni was led into a trap.

He was the first South African businessman arrested this year on charges of nuclear material contraventions tied to weapons for mass destruction.

Johan Meyer, Gerhard Wisser and Daniel Geiges were arrested in the past three weeks and also charged with similar contraventions - the import and export of multipurpose equipment and the import of equipment without the required permits.

At this stage, there seems to be no connection between them and Karni although similarities exist in the methods allegedly employed by them.

According to the evaluation, South Africa is a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Not to be regarded as a 'free pass'

In terms of this, a member state needs less control measures for nuclear imports from other member countries than from non-members.

However, the lessening of restrictions should not be regarded as a free pass for illegal actions, which apparently happened in Karni's case.

Some of the documents in his court case show that his "clients" regard South Africa as an ideal channel through which to get controlled goods from the US because of the perception that South Africa's control measures are inadequate.

- Beeld