Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/27/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AFRICA/W-M-D THREAT (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-315406

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The African Union is expressing deep concern about the possibility of some uranium-rich, but economically impoverished African countries selling the raw materials needed to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. As V-O-A correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program may have made numerous trips to Africa, seeking to obtain and traffic nuclear material.

TEXT: An African Union terrorism analyst, Martin Ewi, says the continent is increasingly becoming the focal point of rogue states, criminals, and radical groups interested in acquiring or building weapons of mass destruction.

/// EWI ACT ///

Many African countries possess the raw materials, the natural resources which are easily transformed into weapons of mass destruction. For example, there are some African countries that possess uranium. This is key when it comes to making nuclear weapons. If we do not have control, terrorists can easily come in and take advantage of the laxity in the control of these materials.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Ewi says the two-year-old African Union has made prevention of the manufacture and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction one of its highest priorities. The terror analyst says the 53-country group must quickly develop ways to monitor the production, exportation, and use of biological, chemical and nuclear materials in Africa.

/// EWI 2nd ACT ///

Africa is part of the international community and weapons (of mass destruction) are indiscriminate in their effects. So, Africa cannot claim to be isolated from the threats posed by these weapons.

/// END ACT ///

Uranium-rich countries in Africa have already been approached by people seeking to profit from illicit deals.

The Associated Press news agency says it has evidence that Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadir Khan, made several trips to Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger between 1998 and 2002.

All four sub-Saharan countries have known or suspected deposits of uranium, the main raw material used in nuclear weapons and the principle fuel for energy-producing atomic reactors.

Uranium from Niger, obtained through a network in Libya, helped Mr. Khan launch Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program in the 1980s. The country's first successful test of an atomic bomb in 1998 made Mr. Khan a national hero.

Earlier this year, Mr. Khan confessed that he and several of his colleagues had also supplied nuclear-weapons technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya.

But western analysts note that it is still unclear who else may have benefited from Mr. Khan's nuclear deals. (SIGNED)

NEB/AR/ALW/RH/RAE