Another appeal over nuke bid
2008-08-28 16:12
Cape Town - An international lobby group has added its voice to calls on the South African government to think twice before supporting a bid by India to buy nuclear fuel and technology.
The call, from Abolition 2000, comes ahead of a meeting next week of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), of which South Africa is a member.
India has for decades struggled to overcome the exclusion from international nuclear trade resulting from its unwillingness to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
It is seeking an exemption from NSG rules to cover a nuclear trading agreement it signed with the United States in 2006.
Abolition 2000, which says it is a network of more than 2 000 organisations in more than 90 countries working for a global treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons, on Thursday urged South Africa to join other countries in defending the non-proliferation system.
It said it had sent a letter to Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, saying that in the past South Africa had been a strong supporter of international efforts in favour of non-proliferation and disarmament.
Even with conditions that had already been proposed in the NSG, an India-specific exemption from NSG rules would be a serious mistake.
So-called "bad proliferators" such as Iran and North Korea would certainly use the precedent to their advantage.
"Given that the NSG participant states' actions on this issue will have an impact for decades to come, they should not rush to judgement," the organisation said.
"NSG states must not allow themselves to be bullied and cajoled into making a rapid decision just to fit in with a schedule imposed by the date of US elections."
It said that if NSG states did agree to supply fuel to India, they should insist on clear and unambiguous guidelines, among them that if India resumed nuclear weapons testing, or withdraws "civilian" facilities from international supervision, all nuclear co-operation with India would be terminated.
India should also have to declare it had stopped fissile material production for weapons purposes.
A similar call was made on Dlamini-Zuma earlier this week by a South African anti-nuclear NGO, the Pelindaba Working Group.
No comment was immediately available from Dlamini-Zuma's office.
- SAPA