Nations helping S.A. named

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 8

Nations helping S.A. named

NZPA-Reuter Stockholm Western countries — notably the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, and Israel — helped South Africa evade an international arms embargo and build up a powerful military industry, says a book published yesterday.

The book, “Embargo Disimplemented — South Africa’s Military Industry,” by Signe Landgren, details how South Africa was able to continue building up its arms industry with Western know-how and materials, in spite of a United Nations embargo, which became binding in 1977. Mr Landgren, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, concludes: “The history of the implementation of the embargo is at the same time the history of its disimplementation. Smuggling by private agents, false papers and sham companies are only part of the story. Many sales of weapon technology have taken place quite openly.” Nuclear technology supplied to the South Africans in the 1950 s helped them build two nuclear research reactors and a uranium enrichment process, later giving the South Africans the capability to build nuclear weapons, one of which may have been tested jointly with Israel in 1979. In spite of that, the embargo did bite in the aircraft industry, where the South Africans have been unable to produce new planes since 1977. “As an example of the military impact, no Mirage fighter shot down in Angola could be replaced “the logistics problem of supplying the South African army was one factor leading to the defeat at Cuito Cuanavale, in Angola, in late 1988, and this problem can be traced directly to the situation created by the arms embargo,” Mr Landgren said. Mr Landgren identified Italy, France, Britain, the United States, and Israel as countries which ' had helped the South African aircraft industry over the years. Japan, France, West Germany, and Canada had helped the South Africans produce military vehicles, West Germany and Israel had contributed to its rocket technology, while Austria and the Netherlands were among countries supplying the small arms industry.