ye SO CVE AE AITS PBI JAF gen ae pe egy te FEATURE = —— — ns _ South Africa’s nuclear connection ... Israelis probably developed an atomic Wey By RICHARD CLEM ENTS pon as early as 1968, in all likelihood usin reprocessed plutonium from their toy In a little noticed news story Jan. 11, the New York Times reported that Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu “warned that in the event of a full-scale civil war in South Africa, the white minority government, which he said has nuclear weapons, might use them against its own population.” In Bishop Tutu’s words, “Many actions of this government have no basis in rationality. If the hawks believe they have had it, it is just possible they will say, “If we can’t have it, then no one will have it.” ” The question of South Africa using nuclear weapons had first been raised by the Bishop two days earlier in a news conference with the Washington Post’s editors and reporters. While the horrendous possibility of South Africa’s apartheid regime using nuclear weapons must remain — hopefully forever — a matter of speculation, there is no doubt at all that Pretoria actu- ally possesses a nuclear weapons capability and achie- ved it through the active assistance of some half-dozen Western nations — BISHOP including primarily DESMOND TUTU the USS. and Israel, but also heavily involving West Germany, France and Canada. The first indication that South Africa was on the verge of achieving nuclear weapons capability was revealed in: August, 1977 when a Soviet surveillance satellite disco- vered a nuclear test site in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert. The Soviets duly informed the U.S., and Washington, after making its own satellite observations and together with France, a major supplier ofvnuclear tech- nology to South Affica, pressured Pretoria ’* into abandoning its planned nuclear test. However, South Africa’s nuclear wea- pons program was not stopped but merely delayed by this joint diplomatic interven- tion. In the early hours of Sept. 22, 1979 the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory analyzed a mysterious double flash recorded over the Prince Edward Islands in the South Atlantic Antarctic region by one of the American Vela satellites placed in orbit to watch for nuclear explosions. An initial U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) evaluation con- cluded that the recorded double flash was the result of a two- to four-kiloton nuclear explosion, about one-tenth to one-fifth the size of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Subsequently, the Carter administration, because of the political sensitivity of the DIA report, convened a ‘panel of experts’ who concluded that the Vela satellite’s observations were the result of sunlight being reflected from debris knocked off the satellite by a small meteoroid. Last May, however, a U.S. anti-apartheid group, the Washington Office on Africa (WOA), reported that “unpublished U.S. Naval Research Laboratory documents (obtained under the Freedom of Information Act) appeared to confirm reports that a (nuclear) bomb was exploded (by South Africa) in 1979.” The WOA report stated that the U.S. naval laboratory’s investigation “was the most intensive of several carried out by U.S. agencies, involving 75 people for more than six months.” The WOA reports also charged the Car- ter administration with “side-stepping test evidence for political reasons and called for a comprehensive investigation.” WOA spokesman John Conyers stated that “U.S.- South Africa nuclear co-operation since the end of the Second World War, when a joint research project was created to exploit South African uranium deposits, had been a prime factor in Pretoria’s effort to develop a nuclear bomb.” Conyers repeated accusa- tion made by other responsible observers that Israel and South Africa had, in addi- 14 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 5, 1986 tion, been co-operating since 1955 in an effort to develop a nuclear weapons capabil- ity. While the Carter administration attemp- ted to whitewash the findings of its own intelligence agencies on South Africa’s 1979 nuclear test, it did make, according to Geof- frey Aronson, a visiting fellow at Washing- ton’s Georgetown University, some “modest efforts ...to pressure the (Pretoria) regime into abiding by full nuclear non-prolifera- tion safeguards. President Jimmy Carter embargoed the shipment of weapons-grade uranium to South Africa and persuaded France to do the same. Congress followed - the president’s lead, enacting in 1978 the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, which pro- hibits the export of nuclear fuel or reactors to non-nuclear weapons states which refuse to open all their nuclear facilities to interna- tional inspection.” Aronson added: “By 1981, Mr. Carter’s enriched-uranium embargo was beginning to hurt. Two French-supplied Koeberg reactors were nearing completion in South Africa, but without the U.S.-enriched ura- nium fuel, they could not operate.” How- ever, Aronson observed that the Reagan administration has overturned the embargo imposed by President Carter, noting: “Rather than exploit South Africa’s predic- ament to win a meaningful commitment to non-proliferation, the Reagan State Depart- ment raised no objections to a deal bro- kered by U.S. companies permitting France to supply Pretoria with the vital fuel, made available by the cangetiation of a Swiss reac- tor. A second Sanlu transfer was com- : pleted in 1983.” ; On June 2, 1985, the Aagacicice G@uisrd- ian Weekly reported, “In 1973, on the unveiling of a highly sophisticated. heavy artillery system;* Armscor, the (South Africa) state weapons manufacturer, ‘pub- licly boasted that the gun could fire a nuclear shell... .Taking the low yield. of the imputed 1979 test and Pretoria’s confirma- tion that its 155-mm howitzer can fire.a » capability (some: reports claim that: : alsochas'the H-bomb), has long been clan RY Africans) have engaged in barter ac “spread. speculation that military lip strong — that over the past 10 years Is; ae “story of “last ‘June 3, South Af _ protected its putative breakthrough own uranium enrichment plant. When },. ity ‘completed, South Africa will be the o nuclear warhead together, we may conclude .. that South Africa has all the nuclear wea-— pons capacity it can imagine itself needing, whether as a deterrent or asa last’ Tesort: to some kind of Gotterdammerung.” ; The Manchester Guardian conchitied. “The newly unearthed American docu- ments” brought to light by the Washington Office of Africa “add to the circumstantial evidence of nuclear co-operation between Israel, which is known to have advanced technology, and South Africa, which has not only the uranium (and latterly its own enrichment facilities) but also the ability to find the necessary empty space for conduct- ing tests. Thus the belated discovery con- cerning the mysterious explosion near the Antarctic Circle (in 1979) needs close study much further north in the world than appearances suggest.” As to Israel’s nuclear weapons capacity, a Time cover story of June 3, 1985, entitled “Who Has The Bomb: The Nuclear Threat Is Spreading” reported, ““The major exam- ple of that ambiguous status known as hav- ing ‘a bomb in the basement’ is Israel. The - significant’ quantities of uranium aa sts extended military involvement - South Africa, “Reports published outy;, “advisers who specialize i in combatting r -Aronson, “nuclear weapons product: secret, French-built reactor at Dimona, }, the Negev desert.” The Time cover StOpy added that Israel is also reported to hay, “nuclear artillery shells, If true, that woujy mean Israel’s atomic capability has be, . drastically underestimated.” a David Morrison, a research analyst at th, independent Washington-based Centre Defence Infomration, a major U.S. 2 control lobby group, has also stated that Israel is “‘widely believed to hay: ‘secret’ stockpile of 20 or more nuclear pons,” and that “during the 1973 Yo. Kippur War, a U.S. SR-71 spy plane repa e edly spotted Jericho missiles being arm yi with nuclear warheads.” wy In May, 1985, the U.S. newsletter Ae space Daily reported that Israel h "7 ; deployed nuclear armed intermediate-ran, Jericho II ballistic missiles, “mounted ¢ trucks .and supported by nuclear hal underground installations,” in the Neg’ desert. On Feb. 3 of this year the Globe a. Mail also reported that Israel and Iran “co-operated during the reign of Shah Ri Pahlevi in developing a missile capable carrying a nuclear warhead.” The mi was said to be “an improved version of Jericho missile made by the French D sault firm and it is now deployed by Israg). the Negev desert and the Golan Heighty), Israel, which has this nuclear weapo Hy involved ina widely acknowledged broa; \ range of military projects with So Africa. Last Dec. 10, the Globe and nw reported: “According to Professor Yo Perry, a political scientist at Tel Aviv Q™ versity and an expert on the Israeli milita vi industrial complex, the (Israelis and Soy, ing the exchange of South Afri, ?} a PAu for Israeli * ‘mili’! - The Globe added that while Israel dep, Wiy Israel, however, tend to confirm the wi, between Jerusalem. and Pretoria.“ border incursions.’ ; . According to the Time: magazine ¢ oC “announced in.1970 that it had develope new process for uranium enrichment. § then the government in Pretoria has fier r virtually all curious foreign eyes.