POLITICS: U.S. Defence Boss Tries to Allay India’s Security Fears

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Nov 5 2001 (IPS) - U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought Monday to allay fears in India that the current military campaign against terrorism would be confined to Afghanistan.

India, a vocal supporter of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, has expressed disappointment that its scope has not so far been wide enough to cover violent separatist militancy in Kashmir, which it claims is sponsored by neighbouring Pakistan.

“We will be pursuing terrorist networks wherever we find them,” Rumsfeld said at a press conference convened soon after he emerged from a two-hour discussion with Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes.

On Saturday, the United States conceded to an Indian demand that two Kashmiri separatist militant organisations based in Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, be banned as terrorist outfits and their assets frozen.

“We welcome the step though it has come a bit late,” said India’s Minister of State for Home I.D. Swami, reflecting New Delhi’s view that Washington has been tardy in recognising terrorist activity in Kashmir, the possession of which is disputed by Pakistan.

The banning of the two groups preceded Rumsfeld’s arrival in New Delhi from Islamabad and the departure Sunday of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on a tour covering Russia , Britain and the United States. Vajpayee is expected to meet U.S. President George W Bush on Nov. 9.

Rumsfeld said he put great value to building a military relationship with New Delhi and announced the visit here in the coming weeks of Admiral Denis Blair, chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, and undersecretary of defence for policy, Douglas Feith.

But Rumsfeld gave no indication that the United States was about to change its policy of using Pakistan as a frontline state in its war on the Taliban government in Afghanistan or the likely shape of a post- war dispensation in Kabul.

India has strongly opposed the inclusion of Taliban elements in any future government in Kabul, while Pakistan has insisted on including “moderate” elements of the fundamentalist group largely fostered in the ‘madrasah’ or Islamic religious schools during the war to expel Soviet forces from Afghanistan during the eighties.

Such has been the acrimony between Islamabad and New Delhi that when he visited the two capitals last month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was constrained to urge the neighbours to cool tensions lest they interfere in the Afghan campaign.

But tensions have only escalated since then and on Sunday, the nuclear-armed neighbours exchanged heavy artillery fire across the Line of Control (LoC) or ceasefire line that runs through divided Kashmir.

Last week, the two countries also accused each other massing troops along their common border.

Rumsfeld carefully avoided mention of the explosive Kashmir issue and also sought to play down fears that the nuclear warheads owned by the two countries could fall into the wrong hands.

“I do not personally believe that there is a risk with respect to the nuclear weapons of countries that have those weapons. I think those countries are careful and respectful of the dangers that they pose and manage their safe handling effectively,” he said.

India and Pakistan set off rival series of nuclear tests in 1998, drawing upon them economic sanctions led by the United States but lifted shortly after it began air attacks on Afghanistan last month in retaliation for the Sep. 11 terrorist bombings in New York and Washington.

Rumsfeld said the remaining sanctions against India with regard to nuclear and missile technology would shortly be discussed between the State Department and Indian government.

U.S. defence technology sanctions against India are a legacy of the Cold War and go back to the fifties. They were intensified after India first exploded a nuclear device in 1973 and “dual use” technologies came under the ban.

Economic sanctions were added after the 1998 tit-for-tat nuclear blasts. However, the sanctions did not hurt India’s closed Soviet-style economy or prevent India from pursuing its own nuclear and missile programmes with help from Moscow.

Defence Minister Fernandes, who has been invited by Rumsfeld to visit Washington early next year, said Monday’s discussions covered “specifics of mutual defence-related partnerships, including certain items that India needed to acquire and also collaboration in defence”.

The discussions also covered the evolving situation in Afghanistan, he said.