On
August 7, 1963 the United Nations Security Council established a voluntary arms
embargo against South Africa because of apartheid. On November 4, 1977 the Security Council
adopted a mandatory arms embargo. The
Carter administration, under pressure domestically and internationally, cast
the U.S. vote in favor of the embargo.
The
US vote for the mandatory arms embargo was in the context of increasingly
visible movement inside South Africa in the wake of the 1976 Soweto uprising
and the brutal South African government response. That apartheid was a threat to peace was
demonstrated the South Africa's continued illegal occupation of Namibia and
military invasions of the Front Line States, especially Angola. African governments were demanding that the
Carter administration do something. In
the U.S. there was a dramatic increase in the anti-apartheid movement, especially
on college campuses.
But
U.S. government often did little to implement the embargo. The regulations issued by President Carter
banned all sales to the police, military, Department of Prisons and the Bureau
of State Security. When President Reagan
came into office these restrictions were weakened allowing sales previously banned
including the export of computers to the police and military under certain
circumstances. In 1985 Congress changed
the regulations back to the language of the Carter administration.
There
was often lax enforcement of the regulations implementing the embargo. But in a number of cases, given the extent
and nature of the violations, it seems likely that U.S. intelligence agencies
had knowledge of the violations and did nothing to stop them and perhaps even
encouraged them.
The
American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund worked to strengthen the arms
embargo and its enforcement. Below are
some items from my work on this issue.
Richard
Knight, March 2001
South Africa Link, New York Times,
January 28, 1994.
The
International Signal and Control case demonstrated the links, and possible
involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies, in violations of the arms
embargo. This link contacts the letter
to the editor from Richard Knight on behalf of The Africa Fund on the
withdrawal of Bobby Ray Inman's nomination for Secretary of Defense and his
ties to the company International Signal and Control, which illegally sold arms
to apartheid South Africa in violation of U.S. law and the mandatory U.N arms
embargo.
This case demonstrated the lax enforcement of the
arms embargo. The Africa Fund learned of
apparent sales of shotguns and ammunition to South Africa in violation of arms
embargo and alerted both the State Department and the Commerce Department in
November 1990. In June 1991 The Africa
Fund filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request with the Department of
Commerce to get documents relating to the shipments. The Africa Fund received from an anonymous
source a series of internal U.S. government documents that revealed
governmental incompetence in implementing the arms embargo and jurisdictional
wrangling between Commerce and State regarding the investigation.
US Computers in
South Africa by Richard Knight (Africa Fund, 1986)
This
report includes information on the use of computers by the South Africa
government for military apartheid enforcement activities and U.S. export
regulations regarding sales to the South African police and military. Includes profiles of computer companies doing
business in South Africa.
Hearing on the
Oil Embargo Against South Africa
Testimony
of Richard Knight on behalf of the American Committee on Africa before the
Intergovernmental Group to Monitor the Supply and Shipping of Oil and Petroleum
Products to South Africa, April 1989. Includes a discussion of the supply of petroleum produces to the
police and military and U.S. export regulations.
Constructive
Engagement and the Arms Embargo
Statement
by Richard Knight on behalf of the American Committee on Africa before the
Special Committee Against Apartheid of the United Nations General Assembly,
April 1984. This testimony documents how
the Reagan policy of constructive engagement contributed to the arming of the
apartheid regime.
Space
Research Corporation
I
have nothing to post at this time. But
this was a major case involving the supply of technology for a 155 mm
mortar. Also sold were shells that were
actually made in U.S. munitions plants.
Dr. Gerald Bull, who was also chief scientist, headed the company. Many questions about what the U.S. government
knew about the end use of these shells have never been satisfactorily
answered. South Africa subsequently
manufactured these motors and not only used them in its own wars against the
front line states but and exported them to numerous countries. There are reports that some South African
exports of this weapon were made in exchange for oil. Bull was convicted of violating the arms
embargo against South Africa but only served about four months in prison. After his release from prison, Bull moved to
Brussels where he was assassinated in 1990.
Bull's assassination was not, apparently, because of his ties to South
Africa.
Posted
on RichardKnight.com