Page 6 The Other Press

 

When Nuclear bombs are in the hands of
major powers such as the United States and the

Soviet Union, the world is terrorized by the thought of

world-wide destruction. But the world will
really feel fear when countries like

Argentina
CANDU it too !

September... . 23rd to 30th 1982

Acw hundred miles inland from
Buenos Aires stands a monument to a
new form of international politics. It is
hungry politics, one that lays waste to
any pretense of international
responsiblility for a faint respite from
the ever darkening economic turmoil
facing the industrialized world. Like
hawkers in a shadowy carnival
side-show, countries like Canada deal
deadly nuclear reactors to anybody wh®
will buy. In the Argentine province of
Cordoba a CANDU reactor nears
completion-- a project that has helped
keep our nuclear industry alive. It is
also a project that gives carte blanche t
one of the world’s bloodiest
dictatorships to enter the nuclear arms
race. :

In 1974; Canada sold the 600
megawatt reactor to the rightist
government of Isabel Peron. Argentin.
at that time was ripe with instability.
The country faced economic hardship
from a deepening trade deficit. Leftist
groups became the target of right wing
terror squads rumoured to be close to
the place and intelligence branches of
the administration.

In 1976, riding the wave of unrest,
the Air Force successfully orchestrated
acoup. At that time Canada had the
option of cancelling its agreement to
complete the reactor, but instead stood
by as the military openly continued the
reign of terror against its citizens.

Approximately 7000 people were
estimated to have been killed by the
military. Three thousand had been
imprisoned while thousands more h
‘‘disappeared’ ’--kidnapped by the
military and never seen again. :

In November 1980, the Organization
of American States called on Argentina
ito take immediate action to halt the
grave violation of fundamental rights
within the country.

The United Nations Working Group
on Enforced or Voluntary
Disappearances reported in January
1981 it had received specific informatio
on approximately 9000 cases of
‘‘disappearance’’ in Argentina and it
listed 16 secret detention camps where
the disappeared are believed to be held

The total number of ‘‘disappeared’’ ar
estimated at between 15,000 and
20,000.

The Argentine junta’s main respons
to international criticism has been to
simply pass a law declaring officially
dead all persons who ‘‘disappeared’’
between November 4, 1974 and
September 1979.

In its dealing with Argentina over the
past several years, the Canadian
government has been given a series of
clear signs that Argentina plans to use i
CANDU reactor for military purposes
_ Argentina has consistently refused'
meet Canadian requests to sign the
Non-Proliferation Treaty. Canada has
been making such requests of the
Argentine government since 1976.

In 1978, the Washington Post learne
that Argentina was building a facility to
reprocess weapofis-grade plutonium.
(It is now known that there are in fact .
two reprocessing plants in Argentina.
At the time federal NDP energy critic
Tommy Douglas argued that
Argentina’s decision to build a
reprocessing facility was sufficient