Pakistan has diverted financial and technical assistance from the IAEA for military
EVEN BARACK Obama is a 'private nightmare, "as reported in a U.S. diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks last month. And if Pakistan, uneasy ally of the United States in South Asia, nuclear power unrecognized since 1998, had to switch hands Islamists? Faced with the threat of Taliban and shady political power, buttressed on its nuclear prerogatives, Western countries have failed in their efforts to secure Pakistani nuclear sites and reduce the risk of one day capturing the Islamist the bomb. Pendant ce temps, le Pakistan continue de recevoir une aide technique et financière massive de la part de l’Agence internationale de l’énergie atomique (AIEA), dont la priorité consiste pourtant à circonscrire la prolifération nucléaire sur la planète. Avec quarante projets menés au titre de la coopération technique et 16,6 millions de dollars déversés depuis les six essais nucléaires de 1998, le Pakistan est même le second pays bénéficiaire des subsides de l’agence de Vienne. Celle-ci a largement contribué au développement de la mine d’uranium de Dera Ghazi, à 475 km au sud-ouest d’Islamabad, à côté de laquelle a été érigée very quietly plant production of uranium metal, designed exclusively to designing nuclear warheads. 20 km away is the largest center of Pakistani fissile material production, Dera Ghazi Khan, which supplies the country's plutonium reactors. Significant assistance was also provided for those with Pakistani geologists prospecting for uranium, sending between 1991 and 2009 specialists in mining and equipment supply radiometric. In 2003, some of these foreign advisers had yet complained about the suspicious attitude of scientists Pakistan is making particular deny access to the mine in Dera Ghazi. A little farther west, from 1997 to 2002, the IAEA has also contributed greatly to the exploration of uranium in mine Qabul Khel, located in the district very dangerous Frontier Province North-West (NWFP) and the production of yellowcake , a uranium concentrate produced from ore eponymous and necessary to produce the fuel for a nuclear weapon. " assistance to mining uranium appears to have helped Pakistan to continue its nuclear weapons program , agrees Charles Ferguson, president of the Federation of American Scientists. What happened is indeed a deficiency in terms of supervision . The IAEA " has a clear mandate from its articles to help any member state to enjoy peaceful use of nuclear energy ," says Gill Tudor, a spokesman at the headquarters of the agency, on banks of the Danube in the Austrian capital, adding that each capital committed in writing not to divert such assistance for military purposes. A promise Islamabad, owner of sixty nuclear weapons, has clearly not met. For the IAEA, in the monitoring of field projects is the rub. The agency " can not be certain that uranium (from Dera Ghazi) program is intended for Pakistan's military or civilian purposes said Mark Hibbs, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, simply because it does not have a strict verification process in terms of technical cooperation . Islamabad For its part, vehemently denies any diversion of funds from the IAEA for non-civilian. This controversy comes at a worse time, Pakistan until September 2011 to assume the rotating presidency of the Governing Council, the executive agency. " We are a member-state model ," protested Ambassador Ansar Parvez, repeating the same refrain as any other Pakistani officials: uranium mining and nuclear reactors in the country are perfectly safe.
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