Original source URL: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112206C.shtml Fresh Nuke Threats Follow India-Pakistan "Peace Talks" By J. Sri Raman t r u t h o u t | Columnist Wednesday 22 November 2006 Diplomats of India and Pakistan spent two days resuming "peace talks" last week. Within four days of the talks, the security establishments of the two countries have test-fired two nuclear-capable missiles, sending tremors through the entire region. And both have served notice of a reckless nuclear arms and missile race ahead, with the participation and collaboration of major external players. The resumption of the "peace process," rudely interrupted by the serial bomb blasts of July 11 in Mumbai, did not seem real to anyone. Sections of the media, however, saw it as "realism" - in the sense that both official sides accepted the need to keep the "process" going since both wanted to coexist as members of the "global coalition against terror." All the media and other observers agree that the talks have produced no results worth talking about. But certainly worthy of serious note is the nuclear sequel to the talks. President Pervez Musharraf and his men fired the gun to start this round of the race. The day after the talks (November 14-15), Pakistan's Army Strategic Force Command carried out a successful test of an improved version of the Ghauri V missile at an undisclosed site. The surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 1,300 kilometers, which is capable of delivering nuclear hits to targets in India, is obviously not meant for use against Taliban terrorists on Pakistani territory. There was no mistaking the message of the test. As eminent Pakistani analyst Khaled Mahmood pointed out, the test was General Musharraf's loud and clear answer to domestic critics accusing him of "unilaterally giving concessions to India." What Mahmood saw as "a show of power" was also a promise to the hawks that the "peace process" would pose no hurdle to Pakistan's nuclear-weapon program. A Pakistani military official told the media that India had been given advance notice of the test as agreed in an earlier phase of the "peace process." The prior information to India's government may not reassure its people living within the missile's range that the test carried no threat to them at all. The agreement, however, is repeatedly advertised as one of the "confidence-building measures (CBMs)" produced by the "process." The official took away some of the surprise of India's riposte, saying Pakistan had received prior notice of it. The Indian test of a short-range, but no less scary, missile came three days later. An improved, air-force version of the surface-to-surface Prithvi II missile, successfully tested at Chandipur-on-Sea in the State of Orissa (known hitherto more for periodically recurring starvation deaths than for contributions to the country's weapons modernization), caused notable consternation in India's neighborhood. The ballistic missile, with a range of 250 kms (which can be enhanced with reduced payload), has been advertised as a "nuclear, seek-and-scan, targeted, tactical device to pierce the ground and air defense systems of the enemy." The "enemy," obviously again, is not far away. The self-appointed sentinels of India's "security" have more missile tests up their sleeves. Scheduled for early next year is a flight trial of Sagarika, the country's first submarine-launched cruise missile. With a range of 700 nautical miles, it will be capable of delivering a 500-kilogram nuclear warhead. Under development is a submarine-launched version of a BrahMos-model supersonic cruise missile yet to be given an endearingly Indian name. The military deployment of these two missiles, boasts the country's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), "will turn India into the world's fifth power with such a capability." Heartening news for Indians who might have found the Human Development Index (HDI) rank awarded to their country - a way-down 127 - humiliating. The DRDO has also proclaimed its resolve to repeat its test of what was once supposed to be its trump - Agni III. The first test-firing of this surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with an ambitious range of 3,500 kms, failed last July. Despite the failure, it is officially claimed, the test gave the country "a robust second-strike nuclear capability" - a nuke jargon that translates into a capacity for a nuclear strike or a series of such strikes that can "cripple" the nuclear-armed enemy. Agni III, if operationalized after a successful re-trial, can carry a nuclear warhead of 300 kilotonnes. India's program of indigenous missile technology, however, is only the tip of an iceberg, by many expert accounts. The fiasco of the testing of Agni III and some other missiles, for example, has only helped the army top brass push through a deal with Israel, worth nearly 20 billion India rupees (approximately 400 million US dollars), for the Spyder anti-aircraft missile systems, with a reputed capacity for tracking as many as 60 targets. Promotion of India's military relations with Israel, serving as a proxy for the US, has continued ever since the post-9/11 initiation of the US-India "strategic partnership" under the far-right regime of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The change in New Delhi has made no difference, except to make high-ranking army officers' visits to Israel under the present Manmohan Singh government hushed-up affairs. The highlight of the relations in this regard during the Vajpayee days was the $1-billion deal for Phalcon airborne warning and control systems (AWACS), a product of US-Israel collaboration. India's Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, recently in Israel, reviewed the project, and the first three AWACS are scheduled for induction in the Indian Air Force in November 2007. A wide array of other missiles - ranging from the air-to-surface Crystal Maze and air-to-air Python to cruise Popeye - are reportedly soon going to strengthen India-Israel military ties, which both sides underplay under a tacit accord. And the relations can only be reinforced, if a determined George Bush regime does push through the US-India nuclear deal. This reminds one of General Musharraf's dire threat of turning to an "alternative," if Pakistan were not offered a similar deal. The "alternative" was neither new nor unidentified. Former Indian diplomat G. Parthasarathy was trying to be tauntingly facetious, perhaps, when he said Ghauri V was test-fired to welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao (to visit Pakistan later this week). Seriously, however, the missile is believed to be modeled on the Chinese M 11, as Pakistan's Shaheen 1 (a surface-to-surface vehicle for nuclear delivery with a 2,000-km range) was seen as a modified version of the Chinese M 9. India must expect more missile fireworks from Islamabad in the months ahead. The people of India and Pakistan are not supposed to worry about all this. They have been told that, in the resumed round of "peace talks," both sides have agreed to work out ways of avoiding nuclear accidents. The objective of avoiding nuclear damage by design, obviously, is outside the purview of the talks. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
