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SA tipped as Iraqi supplier
26/09/2002 09:36 - (SA)
Igna Schneider, Die Burger
London - It is being speculated here that South Africa is one of the African countries from which Iraq has tried to buy uranium.
In a dossier released by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq is accused, among other things, of trying to procure uranium from Africa for his nuclear-weapons programme.
The dossier claims Hussein will be capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons within the next two years.
Blair said: "We know Hussein tried to buy
significant quantities of uranium from Africa, but we do not know whether he was successful."
The dossier does not name the specific countries that were approached. Security analysts, quoted by the Guardian newspaper, said the Congo (Kinshasa) was the most-likely option, followed by South Africa.
However, the newspaper was sceptical about South Africa's involvement.
Sold enriched uranium in 1988
Although South Africa is a "suspect" because of its former nuclear capabilities, its nuclear programme was dismantled under the watchful eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
South Africa produced nuclear bombs in the eighties and sold enriched uranium to Hussein a year before suspending its programme in 1989.
The BBC claimed an anonymous South African source in intelligence circles said America approved of the transaction at the time and about 50kg of uranium was sold to the Iraqis.
The Guardian reported it was possible that South African officials, or former officials, negotiated with Iraq after the republic signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1991.
The newspaper claimed Iraqi agents negotiated with crime syndicates in the Congo to buy high-grade minerals - possibly uranium - in exchange for Iraqi military weapons and training.
A delegation of five Iraqis apparently was arrested by Kenyan security services in Nairobi in November last year while travelling to the east of the Congo on false Indian passports.
The newspaper alleged it had seen documents proving that leaders of the Mayi-Mayi, the civil force involved in the Congo's civil war, visited Baghdad twice.
Question asked in parliament
They apparently offered to sell gold and diamonds to Iraq. The document did not mention uranium.
The Times (of London) reported that Hussein's agents visited a number of African states in the hope of procuring uranium, but apparently returned empty-handed.
South African Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka is expected to clarify the issue soon on whether South Africa supplied uranium to Iraq.
The Democratic Alliance handed a question to Mlambo-Ngcuka in parliament on Wednesday in which she was asked to comment on whether Iraq had approached South Africa for uranium or not.
- Die Burger
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