The DRC and Uranium for Iran

By Douglas Farah

The Lumbumbashi uranium mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo produced the uranium that allowed the United States to build its first atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Now the Sunday Times is reporting that Iran has been trying to buy large quantities of uranium and smuggle it out through Tanzania. They know because one large shipment was stopped in Tanzania in October 2005 when it was discovered during a routine check. No one knows how many have gotten through.

This again highlights the dangers of stateless areas and failed states in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the enabling of rogue regimes.

Few know what goes on in this area of the DRC, a nation that has been in a perpetual state of conflict for more than a decade. The central government controls little and the armies of neighboring countries, along with armed Congolese warlords, control these mineral-rich areas that operate beyond state supervision. U.S. and European intelligence services are virtually blind in such regions.

It is interesting that North Korea in recent years also attempted to mine uranium from the same abandoned Shinkolobwe mine, supposedly closed in 1961. Two of the most isolated governments in the world finding the same area hospitable to their efforts to acquire vital ingredients for their weapons of mass destruction tells you a lot about the current state of the DRC. My full blog is here.

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