CAPE TOWN, Aug 10: South Africa has sold arms to Pakistan, India, Rwanda and Zimbabwe in the past two years, according to a report released by the government which has prompted warnings that it is breaking its own rules on arms sales and putting peace initiatives at risk.

The report shows that the local arms industry, the biggest in Africa, delivered “major sensitive significant” weapons — which range from missiles to attack helicopters — to Pakistan and India in 2000 and 2001.

Rwanda last year received weapons classified as “non-sensitive”, but arms industry watchers said they believe these were spare parts for Grade A weapons sold to the central African country before South Africa imposed an arms embargo on it, along with other belligerents in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1999.

The report from the National Committee on Conventional Arms Control (NCACC) was made public days after DRC President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame signed a South African-brokered peace agreement on July 30 to end their four-year-war in the former Zaire.

The accord in turn came within weeks of the birth of the African Union at which South African President Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the body, called for an end to conflicts raging on the continent.

The opposition Democratic Alliance charged: “The sale of equipment to countries such as India and Pakistan who are in a near state of war and to countries such as Rwanda and Zimbabwe place moral questionmarks on the government’s commitment to international and regional peace and security.

“This does not bode well for the leadership role South Africa is playing in the AU.”

The report shows that total arms sales amounted to just over a 103 million dollars.—AFP