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| Friday, 6 February 2004 |
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Intelligence agencies allege: Lankan was Pakistan nuke chief's middleman Kuala Lumpur, Thursday (Reuters) Malaysian police were investigating on Thursday a company controlled by a son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over allegations that it was involved in supplying parts for Libya's nuclear weapons programme. National police chief Bakri Omar said in a statement issued to "clarify several questions and confusion" that the probe was sparked by information provided last November by US and British intelligence services. The CIA and MI6 told Malaysia's special branch that the company, Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd. (SCOPE), was supplying centrifuge components made in Malaysia for Libya's uranium-enrichment program. The containers had a SCOPE seal, and Malaysian police investigations confirmed that a Dubai-based Sri Lankan businessman, B.S.A. Tahir, had in 2001 contracted SCOPE to manufacture the components. Tahir was named by the intelligence agencies as a middleman apparently used by the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has admitted selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. SCOPE is a unit of listed oil and gas firm Scomi Group, in which the premier's son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, is the biggest shareholder. The intelligence revealed that five containers allegedly containing centrifuge components were seized from a ship, BBC China, in Taranto, Italy, on October 4. Bakri said in the statement issued Wednesday night that Tahir and SCOPE were "co-operating fully in helping the police in this investigation", and denied reports in some media that Tahir was in custody. Centrifuges can be used for enriching uranium used in nuclear reactors or bombs, but Bakri said initial investigations showed that the seized components "can also be used in petrochemical and water treatment equi pment and for health purposes such as molecular biology for protein separation". Scomi said in a statement that the contract to manufacture 14 semi-finished components for Gulf Technical Industries LLC (GTI) in Dubai, worth 13 million ringgit, was arranged by Tahir, but it was never told of the end-use of these components. It had shipped them to GTI in four consignments from December 2002. Bakri said a full statement would be issued "once investigations into this matter are completed". The leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), Lim Kit Siang, called Thursday for an independent inquiry into the affair. He questioned the credibility of a police investigation into a company controlled by the prime minister's son, pointing out that the premier also holds the home ministry portfolio governing the police. |
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