Mordechai
Vanunu blew the whistle on Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program. He has now
served 17 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. Although
nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, will he be leased next year when his
prison term ends? Are there lesson for South Asia?
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Mordechai Vanunu |
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Last
week I watched the trailer of a BBC program that promised to be a real corker.
Having checked its airing time using the Net, I went about telling friends about
it. Here’s why:
The
trailer showed Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor and the biological institute in
Nes Tziona, with the narrator saying, “Which country in the Middle East has
not declared the nuclear and biological weapons in its possession?” Uppermost
in my mind, as I watched, was that US intentionally overlooked Israel’s
undeclared nuclear and biochemical weapons program. Instead, the US has focused
on countries, declared to be on the “Axis of Evil,” which it claims have or
are about to acquire such weapons.
The
trailer also said that there was no supervision over Israel, “which is holding
in custody for 17 years a man who has leaked its secrets.” This pointer took
me back to 1986 when I was in Virginia when the world press came alight with the
revelation of a former Israeli nuclear worker in London’s Sunday Times
about his country’s advanced nuclear weapons program. Later he was lured to
Italy by the Mossad, drugged and illegally smuggled to Israel where he was tried
and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
At
his parole hearing, prior to the Iraq war, the prosecution refused because,
“if Vanunu was released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq and… go
after Israel’s nuclear weapons.” This contention was laughable but it
carried. More than the courts, it is the secret service, in the shape of Yehiyel
Horev, who wanted to make an example out of Vanunu. Leaders such as Shimon Perez
(who appears often in the program, and is considered the father of Israel’s
nuclear effort) have supported such actions. Horev succeeded, and others have
generally shied away from revealing damaging secrets.
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Israel’s much disputed Dimona (top view)
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Thankfully,
some have been brave enough to voice concerns and did not have Vanunu’s bad
luck. They may have been saved because of the media attention already paid to
the earliest whistle-blower. Take Uzi Even, who considers the Dimona reactor
dangerous and recommends it shut-down because old reactors are liable to have
accidents. He worked there 40 years ago and now feels that it ought to be
brought under the purview of parliament and an independent inspection regime.
Spills,
leakages and other accidents from the reactor have led to many workers
contracting cancer. The authorities have not compensated them or their families,
and refuse to accept the link between their work and the disease. They are not
even allowed to fight against such ruling.
New
gas used by IDF during the Intifada caused uncontrolled convulsions. |
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A
case highlighted in the TV program was the use of chemical weapons against
Palestinians during the Intifada. About 180 demonstrators were subjected to a
new gas agent not long ago caused them uncontrolled convulsions. Information
about the antidote was withheld from the Palestinian medical personnel, thereby
causing great agony to the victims.
Shimon
Perez justified such actions by saying that, unlike other countries in the
Middle East with such weapons, Israel was a democracy and was surrounded by
enemies. He instead pointed to Saddam who had gassed tens of thousands of Kurds.
His arrogance and reluctance became apparent when the interviewer tried to probe
him for answers, eventually saying that he was not obliged to reply to any
questions! The State of Israel has responded, as reported in Israel’s
newspaper Haaretz in June 29th,
that it will sever all ties with BBC in protest against the airing of the
documentary that it lobbied to stop.
While
the attitude of the Israelis, a so-called democratic country, toward its
dissidents is reprehensible, it is important to look closer at things in South
Asia to see how we handle such situations.
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Agni, India’s intermediate-range ballistic missile
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India
and Pakistan both have old reactors, and others that are not under international
inspection. The old reactors, like Dimona, may be unsafe. Those which are not
inspected are almost certainly used for production of plutonium, an essential
component of a nuclear bomb. While Israel is regarded to have the sixth largest
stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, the numbers for warheads and delivery
systems in South Asia remain unclear. Israel does have a more competent
technical workforce compared with to that of South Asia, but despite that they
have been unable to prevent serious disease-causing accidents. How are the South
Asian workers faring?
Some
years ago, India’s Outlook magazine reported the poor state of
maintenance and safety in Indian reactors. A few sporadic reports about the
Pakistan nuclear program of radioactive leaks and radiation damage to workers in
the whole nuclear cycle have appeared over the years. There have been no
whistleblowers on either side, to my knowledge, that have provided insiders’
accounts. The conspiracy of silence continues as both sides zealously protect
their respective nuclear programs.
Will
both sides, one may ask, cut back dramatically on their dangerous civilian and
military nuclear effort after the Kashmir dispute is solved, or will they
continue to hide behind the flawed idea of nuclear deterrence? The genie once
out of the bottle is very difficult to put back in - not impossible, though. But
this can only happen if the maker of this dastardly technology reforms itself.
Once it can step on a high moral ground it will be able to pressure other states
to also dramatically reduce nuclear weapons. This would be the start of the road
towards total nuclear disarmament.
Isa
Daudpota is
a physicist who writes on education, science, IT and the environment. He is with
the planning team of a new liberal arts institution, the Beaconhouse National
University, Lahore.
