Abdul Minty

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Abdul Samad Minty (* 1941 in Johannesburg ) is a South African diplomat. He is currently the ambassador for his country on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He was a candidate to succeed Mohammed el-Baradei as Director General of the IAEA.

Education and early political activities

Minty, a South African of Indian origin, went into exile in 1958 in London against the background of apartheid politics in his country, which discriminated against non-whites, where he first graduated from school. Minty then studied international relations and economics in London and co-founded the anti-apartheid movement there. Initially known as the Boycott Movement, the British anti-apartheid movement was founded in 1959 by South Africans and their supporters in response to a call by Albert Luthuli . It became something of a model for initiatives against apartheid in other countries. Minty was the honorary secretary of the British anti-apartheid movement for about three decades . While in exile in Britain, he made contact with the ANC (the later South African President Thabo Mbeki was in London at the same time), with leaders of African states, many of which gained independence in the early 1960s, and with international organizations such as the UN , the Commonwealth and the non-aligned .

His studies and research were closely linked to his work in the anti-apartheid movement. Minty obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1968 and a Master of Science degree from University College London in 1969 with his dissertation on the strategic importance of South Africa for the West (“South Africa's Defense Strategy”) .

Commitment to apartheid

On the basis of resolution 1761 of 1962, which condemned apartheid, the UN took action against apartheid. Following a proposal by Minty, the UN Special Committee against Apartheid was founded in 1963 , which has long been rejected by Western governments. Abdul Minty became Principal Secretary in this Special Committee and head of the UN Center against Apartheid . The British anti-apartheid movement was an ally of the special committee in the west; the cooperation was a basis for the later acceptance of the need for sanctions against apartheid South Africa and was operated by Minty.

Minty presented material on racism in South African sport to the IOC in 1962, which led to the exclusion of South Africa from the Olympic Games in 1963.

After completing his studies, he was a researcher at the Richardson Institute for Conflict and Peace Research in London from 1969 to 1975 .

In 1979 he went to Norway to lead the "World Campaign against Military and Nuclear Cooperation with South Africa" ​​in Oslo. This initiative campaigned for compliance with the arms embargo against South Africa and against South Africa's (then only suspected) nuclear weapons program. Minty repeatedly addressed these questions in the UN bodies, for example in the special committee against apartheid or the OAU . During this time he was also a researcher at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo.

After the end of apartheid

Minty returned to South Africa in 1995. His experience and contacts were in demand in post-apartheid South Africa . He became Deputy Director General in the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Council on the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, located in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which is responsible for export controls on nuclear materials.

In 1995 he also became South Africa's ambassador to the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna. Minty was committed to global nuclear disarmament, but also to the spread of peaceful nuclear technologies. In November 2008, South Africa's Mining and Energy Minister Patience announced Sonjica Minty's candidacy to succeed Mohammed el-Baradei, whose term of office ended on November 30, 2009, as Director General of the IAEA. His candidacy was mainly supported by developing and emerging countries. After a first attempt at the election in March 2009 did not bring a decision, the Japanese Yukiya Amano was able to prevail against Minty on July 2, 2009, when he achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in the fourth ballot.

literature

Hans-Georg Schleicher: South Africa's new elite. The influence of exile on the ANC leadership . Hamburg contributions to Afrika-Kunde 74, Hamburg 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8131107.stm
personal data
SURNAME Minty, Abdul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minty, Abdul Samad (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Johannesburg , South African Union