Cape Town - SA will not sell arms to all comers and countries violating human rights, Education Minister Kader Asmal said yesterday while rejecting claims that the National Conventional Arms Control Bill did not provide for transparent reporting to Parliament.

The bill has been criticised during its progress through Parliament for failing to provide transparent reports on arms sales to a parliamentary committee and therefore the public.

Asmal was accused of interfering in the progress of the legislation and having the reporting requirement removed.

Replying in the second reading debate on the bill in the National Assembly, Asmal, who chairs the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, said that SA's system of conventional arms control had political oversight by ministers not involved in security matters.

He said arms transfers were not simply dealt with by civil servants as happened in other countries.

Responding to criticism over the supply of arms to Pakistan, he said that the moment there was the coup in Pakistan arms sales were suspended, and would remain that way until there were clear indications that the country was returning to democracy.

Democratic Party defence spokesman Hendrik Schmidt said that SA had been secretly exporting arms to Pakistan and India who were aggressive rivals.

He took issue with the disclosure provisions in the bill and said that he agreed with the requirement that there be an annual report to the United Nations Registrar of Conventional Arms and quarterly reports to cabinet.

Schmidt said that the most important reporting function, that of an annual detailed report to a special parliamentary committee and to the public, had been taken out of the legislation. He said he was also against Parliament being given the power to recommend that problematic arms transfers be halted.

Asmal said SA had ensured that over the last 10 years there had been no sustained accusation that the arms regulation mechanisms had been broken by domestic arms manufacturers.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.