POLITICS: India Hits Unilateralism in Iraq, Anti-War Calls Rise

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Mar 19 2003 (IPS) - Indian officials kept up their opposition to the imminent, U.S.-led war on Iraq on Wednesday amid rising anti-war protests here, ranging from marches by Muslims and peace activists to calls for a boycott of U.S. and British goods.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said Wednesday that the ”unilateral” war against Iraq not only diminished the United Nations Security Council, but also bodes ill for the future of the whole world.

Advani, who also holds the key interior ministry and is regarded as the most powerful man in India after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said ”Iraq should implement U.N. resolutions but if there were any problems it was for the (Security Council) to deal with it.”

Following discussions in Parliament, Vajpayee had stated on Mar. 12 that his government was opposed to unilateral military action against Iraq and to the forced regime change sought by the United States.

But still, New Delhi does not wish to openly offend Washington. Like Vajpayee, Advani refrained from naming the United States, with which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been assiduously pursuing better relations.

In his address to Parliament, Vajpayee said a war in Iraq could adversely affect the welfare of some 3.5 million Indians working in the oil-rich countries around the Persian Gulf, disrupt supplies of crude oil and affect export trade to the region.

The Vajpayee government enthusiastically supported the U.S. led ‘war against terror’ in Afghanistan and offered logistical support to the allies, but its objections to the war reflect the government’s fears that public opinion does not favour similar support for the coming war in Iraq.

A U.S. offer of a major role for India in reconstruction work in post-war Iraq was greeted with indignation by parliamentary deputies, and opposition leaders said they hoped that the U.S. government would not turn this country into a nation of ”vultures”.

India, though a secular country, is home to the world’s second largest population of Muslims and people belonging to the faith have been holding demonstrations against the impending war on Iraq across the country.

On Wednesday police, had to arrest several hundred people in the western port city of Mumbai after they tried to storm through barricades to reach the U.S. consulate there.

The protest was led by the National Congress Party, a partner in western Maharashtra state’s Congress party government that is opposed to India’s pro-Hindu government led by the BJP. The National Congress Party is also popular with the state’s Muslims. On Tuesday night, the All-India Muslim Women’s Forum lead a candle-light march through the Muslim area of Jamia Nagar of the national capital, carrying placards that read ”Death to American neo-imperialism”.

The marchers voiced rhyming slogans in Hindi, which said that while Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was the ‘bahana’ (excuse for the war) oil was the ‘nishana’ (real target).

In the southern city of Bangalore, the People’s Health Movement, an international coalition of physicians and volunteers, issued a call for the boycott of goods made in the U.S. and Britain.

”A Gandhian-style economic boycott in which all countries opposed to unilateralism participate is the only way to stop a war in Iraq,” said P V Unnikrishnan, an organiser for the People ‘s Health Movement.

Unnikrishnan, who carried out a survey of health facilities in Iraq in February, described the situation as ”funeral in slow motion which would only be hastened by the war”.

Malnourishment, water-borne diseases, depleted uranium and a health-care system crippled by more than a decade of tight sanctions have taken a heavy toll on ordinary families in Iraq who are in no condition to face another round of intense bombardment, he said.

”A quick glance through the neonatal wards of hospitals showed that there were too many underweight and premature babies being kept in old incubators,” Unnikrishnan said. Last year, he added, 25 percent of all babies born in Iraq were underweight.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the United States and its allies dropped 88,000 tonnes of explosives over Iraq, some laced with depleted uranium. The results of these are to be seen in the numerous cases of childhood leukaemia in south and central Iraq, Unnikrishnan said.

According to Unnikrishnan, Iraq desperately needed voluntary help under the auspices of the United Nations or through voluntary agencies. But even this was being denied to a population where, according to the U.N. Childrens’s Fund (UNICEF), half a million have died since 1991 through sanction-related causes.

He cited a U.N. report which said that a new war in Iraq would put 7.4 million people in immediate need of humanitarian help, though millions more would perish simply because they would have no access to aid workers that may be allowed in.

Aware of public opinion toward the war, India’s Defence Minister George Fernandes on Wednesday reiterated an earlier announcement that India would not provide any support for the military action in Iraq and would not would not ”participate in any way”.

During the last Gulf war, India briefly allowed refuelling facilities to U.S. military aircraft, but hastily withdrew it following a public outcry.

India’s former foreign secretary and commentator on foreign affairs J N Dixit has pointed out that Saddam Hussein and his government have had a long record of friendly and cooperative relations with this country.

”The Baath party regime under him (Saddam Hussein) is perceived by large sections of the Indian public opinion as a secular modern state. Iraq has been one of the very few Islamic nations which have supported India on Jammu and Kashmir,” Dixit explained in an editorial page article appearing in Wednesday’s ‘Indian Express’ newspaper.