Iraqi agents have been negotiating with criminal gangs in the Democratic Republic of Congo to trade Iraqi military weapons and training for high-grade minerals, possibly including uranium, according to evidence obtained by The Guardian in London.
It comes as the dossier unveiled by Prime Minister Tony Blair accused President Saddam Hussein of trying to buy African uranium to give Iraq’s weapons programme a nuclear capability. The dossier did not identify any country allegedly approached by Baghdad, but security analysts said the Congo was the likeliest, followed by South Africa.
Documents seen by The Guardian show that leaders of the Mayi-Mayi, a brutal militia embroiled in the country’s civil war, visited Baghdad twice and offered diamonds and gold to the Iraqis. Uranium was not mentioned in the documents, but a Western intelligence officer said the Mayi-Mayi would be able to obtain the material in areas it controlled.
Initial contact between Baghdad and the militia was said to have been brokered by a Sudanese general who offered Sudan as a conduit for Iraqi oil and arms.
In 1998 North Korea sent military trainers to Shinkolobe under an agreement with the country’s former president, Laurent Kabila. They were swiftly withdrawn under American pressure after it was alleged that they had reopened a uranium mine.
Citing sources in Brussels, French radio reported last year that Mobutu loyalists had moved 10kg of uranium bars to Libya, en route to a ”rogue state” believed to be Iraq.
Some analysts were sceptical. ”That uranium mine is an old story but as far as I know it has been closed for some time. I don’t know of any rumours or information regarding the Iraqis being involved,” Jakkie Cilliers, head of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said.
Cilliers was also doubtful of Baghdad obtaining uranium from South Africa. ”As a past nuclear power we are an obvious suspect but it is unlikely because the programme was dismantled under the observation of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
In the 1980s South Africa’s apartheid rulers built several nuclear bombs and, according to a BBC investigation, a year before halting the weapons programme in 1989 they traded enriched uranium with Saddam.
Africa produces a fifth of the world’s uranium. Niger, Namibia, South Africa and Gabon have exported the material. Last year Niger was the biggest producer at 3096 tonnes.
At least four other countries — Congo, Zambia, Central African Republic and Botswana — are said to have exploitable deposits. Most of the deposits are mined by European and South African companies and end up exported to Japan and France. — (c) Guardian Newspapers 2002