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Published on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 in the Times of London |
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Weapons Salesmen Turn
Peacemongers |
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by Richard Beeston on Arms
Exports |
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WORLD powers trying to defuse the stand-off between India and Pakistan stood accused yesterday of fueling the conflict by selling billions of pounds of sophisticated weaponry to both sides. A review of arms sales to South Asia over the past decade showed that Russia, China, France and Britain had supplied Delhi and Islamabad with the bulk of their weaponry, which is now being readied for war. The United States is the only large weapons exporter that unilaterally imposed an arms ban on the two sides after they tested nuclear weapons in 1998. The four other nations, who are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have publicly called for an end to hostilities. Russia and Britain have even offered to mediate. Shannon Kile, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors global military sales, said that the diplomatic efforts were unlikely to succeed until an embargo was enforced and the regional arms race brought to a halt. “Every day I expect to hear the bad news that the two sides have gone to war,” he said. “The only way to stop this dangerous build-up is to impose an effective embargo on both sides.” Arguably the biggest offender is Russia, which provides 72 per cent of India’s military hardware and has helped the country to develop its nuclear capability. On Sunday, President Putin offered to mediate and called on the Indian and Pakistani leaders to join him next month at a conference in Kazakhstan. The Russians are hardly impartial. They have sold India their most sophisticated arms, including 140 Sukhoi and MiG fighters, ten submarines, 310 battle tanks and are in the final stages of negotiating the sale of an aircraft carrier. The Russians have also helped India to build a nuclear reactor in Tamil Nadu, which nuclear experts fear could have assisted Delhi in acquiring the technology to build an atomic bomb. Across the border in Pakistan, the Chinese stand accused of fueling the arms race. Beijing supplies Islamabad with 32 per cent of all its weapons and assisted Pakistan with its nuclear weapons program. The Chinese are also due to supply Pakistan with 150 of its latest jet fighters. Despite the close military ties with the Pakistanis, Tang Jiaxuan, the Chinese Foreign Minister, contacted Jaswant Singh, his Indian counterpart, at the weekend and urged Delhi to show “the highest degree of restraint”. If Moscow and Beijing stand accused of taking sides, London and Paris can claim to be more even-handed by their sale of weapons to both sides. France, for example, provides Pakistan with 15 per cent of its imported arms, including Mirage fighter jets and three sophisticated submarines. It also sells the Mirage warplanes to India. That did not stop President Chirac from telephoning President Musharraf on Saturday and urging him to stop militants provoking India. Jack Straw, who arrives in Islamabad today on a mediation mission, also faces accusations that Britain has exacerbated the situation. It sells Pakistan 9 per cent of its imported arms and India 4 per cent. Several former Royal Navy warships are serving on both sides of the conflict, including the former Falklands War veteran aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, at present commissioned in the Indian Navy as Viraat, complete with Sea Harrier fighters. Other nations better known for their global peace efforts have also been engaged in the arms trade, including Sweden, which supplied artillery to India; The Netherlands, which has equipped both sides with sophisticated radar systems; and South Africa, which sold India its notorious apartheid-era Casspir armored personnel carriers. Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd |
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