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South Africa – a voice for nuclear weapons sanity

Exiting the nuclear club
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/09/exiting-the-nuclear-club/ The
world believes that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join the
handful of nations around the world that possess nuclear weapons.

Over the past two decades, that list of countries has been growing,
with nations like Pakistan and India publicly acknowledging their
nuclear weapons.

There has been just one exception.

Just as Nelson Mandela was emerging from prison over 20 years ago to
lead South Africa out of the wilderness of racial hatred, his country
was in the midst of another change that could be a model for the rest
of the world.

By 1991, the Rainbow Nation had become the only country to dismantle
and destroy its own nuclear arsenal. That decision, along with the end
of apartheid, helped restore South Africa’s international legitimacy.

It also made the country a leading voice for nuclear sanity.

Today, South Africa’s weapons-grade uranium left over from the
apartheid era is being turned into medical isotopes that can detect
cancer and other diseases.

Swords into plowshares.

January 10, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | South Africa, weapons and war