[sacw] appeal against deployment of Nukes in the sub-continent

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
South Asians Against Nukes
(aiindex@m...)
===========================
Dear Colleague,

Please find enclosed an appeal/statement against the
deployment of nuclear weapons in the sub-continent. You will appreciate
from the recent developments in India-Pakistan relations the timeliness
and importance of such a statement. We invite you to join us in signing
this statement. If you wish to add your name as a signatory please send
a one-line message saying so to kmaddaly@y... or
jayaram40@h... . Please also feel free to circulate this mail to
others. It is also urgent that this statement appear in the media. We
would be grateful if you would treat this matter with the required
urgency.

With best regards,
Jayaraman/Krishna Maddaly.
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We, the undersigned, would like to express our grave concern over the
continuing trend towards actual deployment of nuclear weapons in India
and Pakistan. In our considered opinion, working towards peace and
security in the sub-continent is not possible today without stopping
nuclear weaponisation.

If nuclear weaponisation proceeds, densely populated
regions of both countries will be within the range of
delivery systems armed with nuclear warheads. The extent of
such regions will sharply increase with the development of more
sophisticated missiles. The danger due to
accidental or miscalculated launch of nuclear-tipped missiles will
only increase further. Given the proximity of India and Pakistan, it is
clear that no command, control and intelligence system will be
sophisticated enough to mitigate the dangers due to nuclear weapons.

Persistence with nuclear weaponisation will make an arms race in the
sub-continent inevitable.
In this context, we emphasise that the Indian government's
current policy amounts to a peace-threatening and destabilising
deployment of nuclear weapons,
even if accompanied by claims to peaceful intentions.
Contrary to the statements of the Prime Minister, nuclear weaponisation
will do little to "promote the territorial integrity and sovereignity of
India". The fact is that any use of such weapons
will devastate the land and the people living on it.

Even if, in the short run, the threat of a nuclear confrontation between
India and Pakistan is not comparable to the dangers posed to the world
by the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear weapons states, above all the
United States, why should the people of
India and Pakistan be subject to the direct threat of a nuclear
confrontation from weapons held by their own governments? Why should we
embrace the discredited theory of deterrence now when democratic India
has long rejected it as a basis for its security and as morally unacceptable?

Nuclear weaponisation is yet to take off in a serious way in the
sub-continent. The time to stop this dangerous
trend is now.

India, in tandem or in co-operation with Pakistan, must
commit itself to the following major steps as a matter of priority:
1) Non-deployment of nuclear weapons in hand.
2) Non-conversion of fissile material stocks into nuclear weapons.
3) No further nuclear explosions or testing.
4) Dismantling or destruction of the nuclear weapons in the small
armoury.
We note that Pakistan has indicated its willingness to commit itself to
non-deployment of nuclear weapons if India does the same.

The moratorium on testing must be continued and strengthened by a
resolution or act of Parliament. This will effectively curb the
temptation of hawkish forces to try and push nuclear weaponisation
outside the purview of public and parliamentary scrutiny.

These steps will also ensure that the sub-continent does not become the
setting for unwarranted intervention by the United States, such as is
being witnessed currently.

India must stop seeking an unprincipled accomodation with the unequal
and discriminatory global nuclear order. The Government's willingness to
sign and ratify the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) by September 1999 is part of an
attempt to retain nuclear weapons at all costs. The real issue before
the people of India is not the CTBT but nuclear weaponisation, which
must be rolled back through the concerted democratic efforts of the
people of our country. India must return to the vigorous
pursuit of a global nuclear disarmament agenda with the abolition of nuclear
weapons as its central goal.
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