[sacw] On the Nuke Test anniversary in Pakistan, India

[Harsh Kapoor]

May 27, 1999
=46YI
(South Asians Against Nukes)
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
(1.) Article by a leading Pakistani scientist and peace activist on Indian
and Pakistani Nuclear test anniversaries

POKHRAN-CHAGHI AUDIT -- WINNERS AND LOSERS

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

Now reduced to silently spewing radioactivity into the
desert air, the crater of Pokhran 98 remains a grotesque
monument to the folly of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his crew
of nuclear adventurists. On this side of the border stands
the wretched mountain of Chaghi, so brutalized and disgraced
that its face had turned ashen white.

When the month of May returned, it should have been a time
to reflect on past follies. Instead diseased minds chose to
shamelessly rejoice. On that side they crowed about
"Technology Day", and on this side they called it
"Youm-e-Takbir". Drunk with the new-found power to commit
mass murder, they blew raucous trumpets and beat drums in
preparation of macabre, insane, officially sponsored
celebrations. Little badges with mushroom clouds were
distributed free to children, poetry competitions extolled
the greatness of a newly nuclear nation, and state
television went on a bomb-glory blitz.

It's time for a reality check, to make a tally of the gains
and losses, to separate winners and losers. Not every
inhabitant of this subcontinent is a loser in this rush
towards death and destruction. After all, an undertaker
prospers well during a plague. So, at least for now there
are many winners.

The Nawaz government is a clear winner and Chaghi was a
godsend to cover up its misdeeds in all that really matters:
economy, governance, law-and-order, education, and health.
Hence the need to stoke the fires of nationalist frenzy. How
else will they cover up for the fact that this year more
than 300 chose self immolation and death to living yet
another painful day of grinding poverty and deprivation?
Uranium there was plenty of, but bread and clean drinking
water there was little.

The men of faith have won too, although which faith
triumphed is not clear. The holy radioactive sand of
Pokhran, blessed by Lord Shiva, was sprinkled in temples by
the Vishnu Hindu Parisad. In Pakistan the Jamaat-I-Islami
transported a cardboard "Islamic Bomb" around the country,
while right-wing Urdu magazines like Zindagi wrote about the
wondrous miracles of Chaghi. They tell us that divine
intervention had protected the mard-e-momin who prepared the
nuclear test-site from poison-spitting snakes, that four
chickens sufficed to feast a thousand of the faithful after
the tests, and that the Prophet Mohammed has taken personal
charge of protecting the centrifuges of Kahuta.

But it's the Kalams and Khans, the Chidambarams and
Mubarikmands, who won like nobody else. Public adulation,
unlimited funds, private fiefdoms, they have them all now.
Their place in posterity has been reserved, and to their
worshippers and admirers they are the Oppenheimers and
Tellers, the Feynmans and Bethes. Alas, these subcontinental
heroes are quite unknown to those who do real science. No
formula or process is known by their names, and no discovery
of significance attributed to their efforts. But it is
perhaps the kilotons and megatons that matter.

And the losers? They are the people of Pakistan and India,
held hostage by civil and military leaders with tunnel
vision and bloated pride, now forced to live under the
fearful shadow of nuclear tipped missiles that will someday
appear without warning from the other side. Over this year
bombs have followed bombs, missiles have chased missiles
into the stratosphere, and the hawks have flown ever higher,
screaming obscene threats while feeding on juicy tit-bits of
uranium and plutonium. As weaponization accelerates, missile
bearing trucks shall eventually course the highways and lie
safely hidden in gullies and ditches. Each crew will have to
be fully equipped to send its deadly load across the border.
Will some fanatical crew commander someday decide it is time
to settle scores once and for all?

It is a tiresome truth that the poor are losers in any big
game, and they certainly are in this one too. But let's
recall that not long ago some glib-tongued apologists had
tried to make their cunning argument in two parts. Nuclear
weapons are cheap, we were told, said the first part. Maybe
so. But when you add on the costs of delivery vehicles,
measures and countermeasures, command systems, and the whole
infrastructure, then the cheapness evaporates. Bharat
Srinivisan of Columbia University has estimated the total
cost of the Indian nuclear program in 1998 currency terms to
be between US$48 billion to US$72 billion. That is hardly
cheap. The second part said that a country won't need
expensive armaments of the conventional kind if it goes
nuclear. Events have proved this to be complete rubbish. The
Pakistani chief or army staff has said this unambiguously as
well. Defence spending on conventional arms has risen in
both countries since last May, and is still rising. More
tanks, aircraft, ships, artillery=85=85the sky is the limit.

Xenophobia kills civil society. Declare your nukes and
missiles as national symbols, get the slogan-chanting
hate-filled crowds on to the streets, and define hate of
India as love for Pakistan. He (the Raiwind estate one) and
she (the Swiss SGN one) are patriotic Pakistanis by the
definition. It matters little that our rulers, feudals,
bureaucrats, and soldiers plunder the country's wealth,
flout the laws of the land, and reduce its people to
destitution. Our patriotism gives sanction for harassing,
beating, and kidnapping political rivals, any one who
exposes corruption, and civil rights and human rights
activists. It allows for the abduction of Najam Sethi from
his bedroom in the middle of the night and charging him as
an agent of evil India. In truth, nucleomania destroys civil
society.

I fear that the worst losers of the nuclear game may well be
the people of Kashmir. Much suffering lies in store for
them. Safely hidden behind their nuclear shields, the brave
leaders of India and Pakistan are perfectly willing to fight
for their noble principles down to the very last Kashmiri.
Clashes along the line of control have reached unprecedented
ferocity in recent weeks, prompting the UN Secretary General
to appeal for calm. Crossing of the LOC is imminent and the
Lahore Declaration has been buried. Meanwhile an emboldened
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, based near Lahore, has declared that it
will throw acid on the faces of those women who walk on the
streets of Srinagar in tight clothes. But I suppose we
Pakistanis must still pray that they succeed in liberating
Kashmir.

There is one loser for whom one need not feel sorry. Booted
out of office after his party lost support, Pokhran did
little good for Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A nationwide survey
conducted in December for India Today magazine found the top
issue among voters to have been inflation, followed by
unemployment. National security was rated among the least
important; half the Indians interviewed had forgotten the
nuclear tests. Whereas Indian voters had mixed feelings,
most of Pakistans' Punjabi officialdom was sorry to see
someone in their own image exit the scene. But this may not
be for long and Vajpayee may yet return in triumph. After
all the Indians are no less drenched in madness than us.

(The author is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam
University, Islamabad.)
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(2.) Letter by by Johna Hallam of Friends of the Earch (Sydney) to Prime
Minister of Pakistan)
John Hallam
=46riends of the Earth Sydney,
Suite 15,
1st Floor, 104 Bathurst Street,
Sydney, NSW, 2000.

=46ax(61)(2)9283-2005 ph(61)(2)9283-2006.

http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd

Dear Prime Minister,

I wish to express my outrage that Pakistan has chosen to celebrate the
anniversary of its nuclear tests (May 28th) by declaring a national
holiday, having 21 gun salutes, and awarding prizes. In my view to develop
such weapons of mass destruction, to test them, and to threaten their use
should be viewed as a national disgrace. It is only a cowardly nation that
would rely upon such instruments of annihilation for its national security.
I place my own country in that category, along with yours and the other
nuclear weapons states.

The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons has
designated May 11th and May 28th as Proliferation Days to signify the grave
threat to humanity that the nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan
represent.

Rather than celebrate these days we consider them to be days of dishonor
and disregard for the human species.

When a year ago, India and Pakistan chose to test nuclear weapons, FOE
Sydney coordinated a sign - on protest letter, which was signed by 97
organisations, to the Prime Ministers, Minister for defence and heads of
state of both india and Pakistan. We urged Pakistan and india to proceed no
further down this path toward mutual destruction.

A nuclear exchange betwen your two nations would be a catastrophe,
generating roughly 100-200 million casualties within two weeks.

Persistence in the deployment of nuclear weapons in a matter for national
shame not pride.

We urge you to proceed no further down this track.

John Hallam, Nuclear Campaigner,
=46riends of the Earth Sydney
-------------------------------------------------------

(3.) Letter by President of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation to Prime Minister
of Pakistan.

Dear Prime Minister,

I wish to express my outrage that Pakistan has chosen to celebrate
the anniversary of its nuclear tests (May 28th) by declaring a national
holiday, having 21 gun salutes, and awarding prizes. In my view to develop
such weapons of mass destruction, to test them, and to threaten their use
should be viewed as a national disgrace. It is only a cowardly nation that
would rely upon such instruments of annihilation for its national security.
I place my own country in that category, along with yours and the other
nuclear weapons states.
The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons has
designated May 11th and May 28th as Proliferation Days to signify the grave
threat to humanity that the nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan
represent. Rather than celebrate these days we consider them to be days of
dishonor and disregard for the human species.

David Krieger
President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
*********************************************************
NUCLEAR AGE PEACE FOUNDATION
International contact for Abolition 2000
a Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 121
Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794
Phone (805) 965-3443 * Fax (805) 568-0466
e- mailto:wagingpeace@n...
URL http://www.wagingpeace.org
URL http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/
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(4.) In Solidarity with Gobal Peace March (Pokhran to Sarnath)

n Solidarity with the Global Peace March (11 May Pokhran - 6
August Sarnath) AID volunteers from Maryland and Boston and Forum
Of Progressive artists (FOPA) members met in Dupont Circle,
Washington DC for a one day rally calling for global peace and
disarmament. After collecting signatures among those present,
Aravinda and I took the letters (addressed to ambassadors from
all nations possessing nuclear weapons) to the embassies. We went
first to the Pakistan Embassy. To our surprise, they immediately
agreed to talk to us. On the strength of this we insisted on
having a meeting when we visited the Indian Embassy as well. We
posted the letters to the remaining Embassies.
Talking to the representatives from the Ambassador's office of
India and Pakistan, we made the following points:

1. We are aware of strong peace movements in both India and
Pakistan. People seeking peace are united in resisting the pro-
weapons forces in both countries, and therefore it is totally
misleading to cast this as an issue of India vs. Pakistan.

2. Security is not defined in terms of bombs, threats and weapons
defense. One official said, "we have waited a long time before
making bombs." We replied that people had been waiting much
longer for the substantial forms of security, namely security of
livelihood, of land, food, water, housing, natural resources. If
anything, the nuclearization of the region has added just one
more form of insecurity.

3. One of the officials said, 'We took polls' We asked them -
whom did you ask? Did you ask those thousands of people who
marched on Hiroshima day all over India? They were supporting
peace. You did not take your polls there. You ask only a few
people and say "Majority". That is not the truth. Majority of the
people are supporting peace not bombs.

4. Responding to arguments such as "if they bomb us, should we
respond or keep quiet?" we asked what the people in Pokhran whose
roofs were blown off their houses and who were now suffering from
lukemia and other diseases due to radiation should do? Should
they go and blow up some government buildings? Spread biological
weapons? Or keep quiet? The official promptly responded that
"violence is not the answer." We echoed the statement
immediately. This action of the govt is something the entire
nation cannot afford to keep quiet about, hence the global peace
march and related appeals for peace.

5. Both officials commented on our youth. In closing, one
official said, "If I were younger, not in govt service, had I not
seen how the governments work I can assure you that I would be
standing shoulder to shoulder with you." We replied that "if
people in responsible positions do not stand with us, we will
never live to your age."

6. Prior to the march, someone had asked us were we going to do
"India bashing." On the contrary, we sought to protect India from
the India bashers, namely the saffron brigade which had thrown
stones at those working for a peaceful India in the Global Peace
March. To the Indian official we also stressed that those working
for peace and unity in India should be protected by the govt and
such assaults on their message, as well as their bodies, should
be strongly condemned by the govt.

Both officials told us that they shared our goals and appreciated
our efforts. Both the officials signed the call for peace
petition which is going to go to the United Nations from the
Global Peace March. We took photos with both.

Aparna Sindhoor, AID-Boston & Forum of Progressive Artists
asindhoor@y...
Aravinda Pillalamarri, AID-India
aravinda@u...

**************************************************************

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