Pretoria set to sign N-arms curb pact

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 11

Pretoria set to sign N-arms curb pact

NZPA-Reuter i Johannesburg < South Africa has an- ( nounced it may soon sign a United Nations pact to ] curb the spread of nuclear weapons, opening | the country’s top-secret nuclear programme to foreign inspection. After years of international pressure, President Botha’s statement has marked a big policy change by South Africa, long suspected of producing atomic weapons. Mr Botha’s announcement that his Government i might sign the 1970 United Nations Non-Pro-liferation Treaty came as « Nigeria led a move at the < International Atomic Energy Agency conference i in Vienna to suspend the : Pretoria Government i from the agency. “South Africa hopes that it will soon be able to 5

sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has decided to open discussions with others to this end,” Mr Botha said in a statement. He said signing the treaty would be accompanied by an agreement allowing inspection of nuclear facilities. There was no immediate official explanation for Pretoria’s shift on the treaty, signed by 134 countries together with a “safeguards” deal allowing checks to make sure nuclear fuel is not diverted for use in weapons. At the agency’s annual conference in Vienna some delegates said South Africa’s white-led Government could be trying to stave off the Nigerian-led initiative to suspend South Africa. Mr Botha said talks with foreign Governments

would depend on the outcome of the agency conference. He did not elaborate. In 1979 American satellites detected a mysterious flash over the south Atlantic. South Africa was accused with Israel, another State which has not signed the treaty, of testing an atom bomb in the remote area. Some South African facilities have been opened to inspection but its main research plant, Pelindaba, near Pretoria, has been hidden from foreign scrutiny. Pretoria controls Namibia, whose large open-cast Rossing mine is a main supplier of uranium oxide to the West. Officially South Africa’s uranium enrichment plants produce the fuel for its Koeberg power station near Cape Town.