S. AFRICA ONCE HAD 6 A-BOMBS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993                   TAG: 9303250168
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA                                LENGTH: Medium
S. AFRICA ONCE HAD 6 A-BOMBS
President Frederik W. de Klerk confirmed long-held suspicions about South Africa's nuclear capability Wednesday as he disclosed that the white-minority government had built six nuclear bombs since the late 1970s. But, three years ago, he said, they were destroyed along with all of their blueprints.
"This country will never be able to build a nuclear device again," De Klerk said after making his announcement to a joint session of parliament in Cape Town. "South Africa is adhering strictly to the requirements of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and it will continue to do so."
De Klerk added that the government would now give international inspectors "full access to the facilities and the records of facilities" it once used to make the weapons.
"South Africa's hands are clean and we are concealing nothing," he told parliament.
The president declined to specify the size of the weapons, but other government officials said each was a 20-kiloton bomb, the same size as the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
De Klerk said he decided to come clean about the nuclear weapons program to end worldwide suspicion, improve South Africa's foreign relations, and open the way for international exchanges of commercial nuclear technology.
It marked the first time a country has voluntarily acknowledged dismantling its nuclear weapons capability. And it followed years of vehement government denials that this nation possessed nuclear weapons.
De Klerk said previous denials were designed to confuse the world.
"It wasn't a lie," he insisted. "But our objective was to make people uncertain whether we had it or not . . . as a deterrent."
The State Department welcomed the announcement, apparently accepting De Klerk's assurance that his country had destroyed its nuclear weapons capability.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB