SA worried about missing nukes

2005-02-27 12:05

Johannesburg - The National Intelligence Agency is concerned about missing weapons of mass destruction in Africa, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

New NIA director-general Billy Masetha was said to be concerned about missing weapons-grade uranium from a nuclear enrichment programme run by the late Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Masetha was also worried about a missing Stinger anti-aircraft missile given to Angolan rebels in the 1980s.

Before taking up his position at the NIA, Masetha was co-chair of the "Third Party Verification Mechanism for the DRC-Rwanda Peace Agreement", which advises President Thabo Mbeki on peace and democracy efforts in the Central African region.

Mobutu, who ruled Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), developed a nuclear programme during the Cold War with the assistance of a "Western power", Masetha told the Sunday Times.

Following the civil war in the DRC, it is unclear what has happened to the nuclear weapons. Masetha said the weapons could have ended up in the hands of terrorists or criminals.

Two fuel rods went missing from a civilian reactor during the 1980s. One of them was recovered from the Sicilian mafia but the other is still missing.

The Congo is a key source of uranium and according to the report supplied most of the uranium used to make the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

- SAPA