An article in The New York Times has said Dubai provides congenial environment for masking destination of illegal merchandise, including those headed for nuclear reactors and weapons. Among the examples it cites are four in which heavy water for Indian nuclear power plants allegedly passed through Dubai in 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986.The article also talks of materials for nuclear weapons for Iraq and Iran and other countries being routed through Dubai. It asks Washington to treat it like a ‘‘smuggler’’ unless it cleans up the act.The examples, say Director of Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control Gary Milhollin and his associate Kelly Motz, are based on shipping records, government investigations, court documents and intelligence reports.In 1982, the article claims, German exporter and former Nazi Alfred Hempel sent 70 tonnes of heavy water, a component for nuclear reactors, from Sinochem in China to Dubai. Upon arrival, 60 tonnes of the cargo were shipped to India, where it was used in energy-producing reactors to create plutonium for atomic weapons programme, it says.There was a similar transaction in 1983, it claims. In 1985 and 1986, Hempel sent 12 tonnes of Soviet heavy water to India that were used to start the Dhruva reactor, ‘‘devoted to making plutonium for atomic bombs’’, the article alleges.From 1998 to 2001, several consignments of rocket fuel ingredients shipped to Dubai by an Indian company, NEC Engineers, were sent to Iraq, in violation of Indian law and UN embargo on Saddam Hussein’s regime, it alleges. In 1990, it says, a Greek intermediary offered Iraq an atomic-bomb design (probably of Chinese origin) from Dr A.Q. Khan with a guarantee that ‘‘any requirements or materials’’ could be bought from western nations and routed through Dubai.
