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DISARMAMENT: Africa Joins the Nuclear-Free Club
By Fareed Mahdy*
CAIRO, Aug 26 (IPS) - Africa, the second-largest continent after Asia, has now become the world's
largest nuclear-free zone comprising 53 countries with about a billion people.
This means denuclearisation of one of the richest uranium producing regions.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the African Union (AU)
announced mid-August that the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ)
Treaty has come into force.
This was after Burundi became the 28th African state to ratify the treat Jul.
15. Algeria and Burkina Faso were the first African countries to ratify it in
1998, two years after its signature.
Its entry comes amidst reports of intensive exploitation of uranium mines in
Africa by European and Chinese-backed multinational corporations. It now
ensures that the southern hemisphere is now free of nuclear weapons.
Under the treaty all parties are required to conclude comprehensive
safeguards agreements with the IAEA. These agreements are equivalent to
those required under the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT).
The treaty also commits its parties "to apply the highest standard of security
and physical protection of nuclear material, facilities, and equipment to
prevent theft and unauthorised use, as well as prohibits armed attacks
against nuclear installations within the zone."
The treaty officially declares Africa a nuclear weapons free zone. It was
drafted in Johannesburg and Pelindaba in June 1995, and opened for
signature in Cairo Apr. 11, 1996.
The treaty is also called the Treaty of Pelindaba after the Pelindaba nuclear
research facility near the Hartbeespoort dam west of Pretoria in South Africa.
Pelindaba is South Africa's main nuclear research centre run by the Nuclear
Energy Corporation of South Africa. This is where South Africa's atomic
bombs were built and stored in the 1970s.
"The African NWFZ, similar to other nuclear weapons free zones in Latin
America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, South Pacific and Central Asia, is
an important regional confidence and security-building measure and would
contribute to our efforts for a world free from nuclear weapons," said IAEA
director general Mohamed ElBaradei.
He said the IAEA welcomed the treaty's support of "the use of nuclear science
and technology for peaceful purposes, and trusts that the use of nuclear
technologies in Africa would contribute to the continent's economic and
social development."
The process of declaring Africa a nuclear weapons free zone was launched at
the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) heads of state and
government meeting in Cairo in 1964. The African leaders declared their
readiness "to undertake, through an international agreement to be concluded
under United Nations auspices, not to manufacture or acquire control of
nuclear weapons."
The leaders based their position on international agreements such as the UN
General Assembly resolution of Dec. 11, 1975 that considered "nuclear-
weapon-free zones one of the most effective means for preventing the
proliferation, both horizontal and vertical, of nuclear weapons."
The African leaders agreed "the need to take all steps in achieving the
ultimate goal of a world entirely free of nuclear weapons, as well as of the
obligations of all states to contribute to this end."
They said "the African nuclear-weapon-free zone will constitute an important
step towards strengthening the non-proliferation regime, promoting
cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, promoting general and
complete disarmament and enhancing regional and international peace and
security."
The African leaders said an "African nuclear-weapon-free zone will protect
African states against possible nuclear attacks on their territories." It would
also "keep Africa free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and
other radioactive matter." The treaty commits members not to dump nuclear
waste.
But the leaders also expressed their support for Article 4 of the NPT that
recognises "the inalienable right of all states parties to develop research on
production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without
discrimination."
The leaders agreed to promote regional cooperation for the development and
practical application of nuclear energy.
Africa has some of the richest uranium mines. Many industrialised countries
depend on uranium from Africa. France relies entirely on uranium exploitation
in Niger to operate its 58 nuclear power plants.
Other uranium producers on the continent are Algeria, Botswana, the Central
African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea,
Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Africa is also reported to be one of the largest nuclear, radioactive and toxic
waste-dumping sites, together with Southeast Asia. Somalia is reported to be
a major nuclear waste dumping site.
Another treaty creating a zone free of nuclear weapons in Central Asia came
into force Mar. 21 this year. Five countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - are parties to the treaty.
This treaty was the first of its kind comprising states of the former Soviet
Union, and is the first such zone in the Northern Hemisphere. Each of the five
states hosted former Soviet nuclear weapons infrastructure. They now
confront common problems of environmental damage resulting from the
production and testing of Soviet nuclear weapons.
Like the African Treaty, the Central Asian pact forbids development,
manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition or possession of any nuclear explosive
device within the zone.
Similar treaties are in force in South America (the treaty of Tlatelolco), the
South Pacific (the treaty of Rarotonga), Southeast Asia (the treaty of Bangkok),
and Antarctica (the Antarctic treaty).
(*This article is a part of an IPS-Soka Gakkai International (SGI) project on
nuclear abolition. The writer is a correspondent of the IDN-InDepthNews
service.) (END/2009)
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