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India-Pakistan: Musharraf Denies Role in Terrorism, India Refuses Talks By Kerry Boyd According to a Pakistani release, officials conducted a short-range missile test today (see related GSN story, today), concluding a series of three missile tests begun Saturday. Meanwhile, in a speech yesterday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf repeated that Pakistan does not support terrorism and condemned recent attacks on the Indian side of the line of control. “Pakistan is doing nothing across the line of control, and Pakistan will never allow the export of terrorism anywhere in the world from within Pakistan,” Musharraf said, adding that those responsible for terrorism are working to destabilize Pakistan. Musharraf said, however, that Pakistan will always provide “moral, political and diplomatic support to the cause of Kashmir.” He indicated that Kashmiri independence is a legitimate cause. “A liberation movement is going on in occupied Kashmir, and Pakistan cannot be held responsible for any action against the Indian tyranny and repression,” he said. The president called for peace, but said he would not shy from conventional war. “We do not want war. But if war is thrust upon us, we would respond with full might and give a befitting reply,” he said. “The danger of war is not yet over.” India In India, observers said Musharraf’s comments have not been a step toward de-escalation. Indian officials refused to consider talks with Pakistan, and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh called yesterday’s speech “disappointing” and “dangerous,” according to the London Times. Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah called the speech “an act of belligerence.” “Musharraf didn’t even reach the lowest expectations we had of him,” he said, according to the Times. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said yesterday that Musharraf is wrong to say there is no militant infiltration, the London Independent reported. “For Musharraf to say that infiltration is now no more there, first of all it is an admission that it was there and they were responsible for that,” he said. “But what he has said about the present situation is totally wrong.” Growing Threat World leaders this weekend cautioned that the threat of nuclear war between Pakistan and India is increasing. “There’s no question but that they [India and Pakistan] have a capability of waging a nuclear war,” U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday, according to the New York Times. “We just don’t know where the ‘red lines’ are any more,” a Bush administration official said (see GSN, May 22). U.S. leaders are not even convinced Indian and Pakistani officials know the red lines —developments that would push either side to go nuclear — the official said. “The situation (in the subcontinent) can spin out of control and lead to a nuclear war,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday in London, according to United Press International. Nuclear war will not happen, Musharraf said in an interview Saturday with the Washington Post. “This stage will never come,” he said, referring to nuclear conflict. “I hope and pray that we will never reach that stage. It’s too unthinkable” (see GSN, Feb. 13). Triple Shifts at Nuclear Facilities Meanwhile, the London Times reported today that a leading Pakistani nuclear physicist said Pakistani scientists have been working overtime for the past three years to accelerate production of weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons. “The scientists have been working three shifts over the past three years since the Kargil conflict,” said Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. “We are much closer to a nuclear conflict with India than at any other time.” There are indications Pakistan has placed nuclear warheads on missiles, Hoodbhoy said. India has the right to retaliate with nuclear weapons if Pakistan launches a nuclear strike, Abdullah said Friday, according to the Hindustan Times. “We have already assured the international community that we will not make the first use of nuclear weapons, but that does not mean that we will not hit back if attacked,” he said (see GSN, Jan. 7). “I don’t think Pakistan is foolish enough to carry out nuclear attack against us (see GSN, Feb. 4). They know after that what serious problems they will have to undergo,” Abdullah said. India said Thursday that it has developed shelters to protect its forces from nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, the Press Trust of India reported. The Defense Research and Development Organization has created a shelter already introduced to the Indian armed services that can provide protection from WMD agents for 30 people for up to 96 hours. 12 Million Casualties A full-scale nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan could kill up to 12 million people immediately and injure up to 7 million, according to a recently completed U.S. intelligence report. Even a war with a limited number of nuclear warheads would be catastrophic, according to the report. A nuclear conflict would require U.S. assistance to combat radioactive contamination, famine and disease, Pentagon officials said, according to the New York Times. “The humanitarian crisis that would result would be so great that every medical facility in the Middle East and Southwest Asia would be quickly overwhelmed,” a Defense official said. Diplomatic Efforts Musharraf told the Post that he wants neutral observers to monitor the situation between the two rivals, including strengthening the U.N. mission already in the region and allowing observers to monitor the line of control on both sides. Several countries are sending envoys to the region in an attempt to avoid war. Straw and Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura have headed to the region, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage is scheduled to visit next week. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safanov delivered a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pakistan yesterday, offering to arrange India-Pakistan peace talks. Pakistan said it would welcome talks and urged Russia to persuade India to participate. Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao indicated Friday that India would wait to see whether Pakistan takes specific action to end militant infiltration across the line of control in the disputed Kashmir territory, according to the New York Times. India wants Pakistan “to stop cross-border infiltration and terrorism, to dismantle the training camps for terrorists, to destroy the support and financing structures for the terrorist networks and to show conclusively that it has abandoned its use and promotion of terrorism as an instrument of state policy,” Rao said. “I think India’s patience is close to breaking point,” said European Union External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, during a visit to the region Friday, according to the Hindustan Times. The United States is looking for evidence that militant infiltration across the line of control has stopped, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.
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