Congo (MRB Dec 2001): Uranium allegedly smuggled to Iraq.

(MRB Dec 2001) An unknown quantity of Congolese enriched uranium-235, the kind used for the making of atomic bombs, and at least 10 kg of uranium-238 have been supplied by a Congolese network to Iraq or North Korea through Italy and Libya, the Italian daily La Reppublica reported on the November 28.

The report is based on the alleged confession of a 49-year-old Italian technician whose name is being withheld by the paper and which only mentions him as 'FP'. He was reportedly approached on the January 24 in Brussels by the former director of the Zairian customs, Beyeye Djema, on the advice of a former Zairian ambassador in Tripoli, Omama Dionge, who now lives in Italy as a political refugee.

Beyeye allegedly tried to convince FP to transport the uranium to Libya, He said a considerable profit could be made out of the transaction since each kilogram of U-238 could be sold there for $150,000. Some time before his assassination, former DR Congo president Laurent Kabila had sold one container to the Libyans and in return obtained helicopters, armoured vehicles and weapons, the paper claimed.

The Italian paper substantiates the story with a document in which Beyeye offers potential clients the U-235.

Seven bars of enriched uranium were acquired by the Italian Mafia from Congolese traffickers in 1998, writes La Reppublica. This time the client was a Libyan-based "black African" - probably a Sudanese, guesses FP. But the latter claims that he was scared and did not go to Tripoli. The paper does not say how the uranium eventually arrived to the Libyan capital or how the mysterious "black African" sold it either to Iraqi or North Korean agents.

The story is clearly highly speculative, say analysts. It does not answer the question of how former Mobutuist exiles had access to uranium and more ...