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S. Africa sending arms experts to IraqDismantled its own nuclear program in the early '90s
From Charlayne Hunter-Gault
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- A team of South African experts on weapons disarmament will travel to Iraq by the end of the week to assist the country, South African President Thabo Mbeki said Tuesday. The group will "inform and advise" Iraqi President Saddam Hussein about how South Africa dismantled its nuclear weapons program in the early 1990s, he said. The group of seven men includes scientists and a member of a government office focusing on peace initiatives. "Between them they will be able to address all matters that relate to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, missile systems, nonproliferation and disarmament," Mbeki told a session of Parliament in Cape Town. They have worked with the U.N. Conference on Disarmament and other international bodies responsible for the enforcement of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and chemical and biological weapons conventions, he said. The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, mentioned in his report to the Security Council on Friday that Baghdad had accepted the South African offer of disarmament consultation. (Full story) The South African leader expressed confidence the men will contribute "everything they can" to help Iraq fully respond to its obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Mbeki said he hopes their work will "facilitate the work both of the U.N. weapons inspectors and the government of Iraq [and] bring us back from the brink of war, while helping to ensure that Iraq is truly free of weapons of mass destruction." President Bush has threatened military action against Iraq if it refuses to abide by U.N. resolutions calling for it to disarm. Baghdad repeatedly has denied possessing weapons of mass destruction. The initiative is the second major effort on South Africa's part to avert war in Iraq. The nation recently sent its deputy foreign affairs minister, Aziz Pahad, with a message from Mbeki offering assistance. South African teamThe South Africans set to travel to Iraq include: • Deon Smit, formerly South Africa's leading official dealing with the International Atomic Energy Agency during the nation's disarmament; • Col. Ben Steyn, adviser to South Africa's surgeon general and an expert on nuclear and chemical weapons; • Super Moloyi, who recently traveled to Iraq with the deputy foreign minister as part of a presidential support group dealing with peace initiatives; • Pieter Goosen, a disarmament expert who works in the South African foreign affairs department; • Scientists Philip Coleman, Daan van Beeck and Tom Markram. For latest developments, see CNN.com's Iraq Tracker.
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