Pakistan Warns of Nuclear Doomsday
By RANJAN ROY
10:00 PM ET 09/22/99
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan carried
their hostilities to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, accusing each other of
pushing the fragile region toward a bloody conflict. Warning of nuclear ``doomsday'' in
South Asia, Pakistan urged world leaders and the United Nations to stop India from
developing a massive arsenal of atomic weapons.
Last year, India became a nuclear power, and Pakistan matched India's first
nuclear test within days.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said the world should not believe India's
promise not to be the first of the two to use atomic weapons.
``Pakistan believes that it is now essential to convene a conference, with the
participation of all permanent members of the Security Council ... to promote the goals of
strategic restraint and stability in South Asia,'' Aziz told the General Assembly. But
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh blamed Pakistan for the rising tensions. He said
Pakistan had spurned India's olive branch and attacked the northern Himalayan region of
Kashmir. Both countries claim the region.
Many observers had hoped that Singh and Aziz would meet in New York on the
sidelines of the General Assembly in an effort to reduce tensions. But Indian diplomats
said Pakistan had not requested a meeting. They did not say why India never requested a
meeting.
The world's newest nuclear nations nearly went to war earlier this year.
Hundreds of soldiers from both sides were killed in fighting in Kashmir.
The conflict has raised the danger of a full-scale nuclear war among the two
nations. They have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
On Wednesday, Pakistan's Aziz proposed a six-point program to get India to
reduce its nuclear weapons, starting with India dropping its ambitious plan for an atomic
arsenal and developing long-range ballistic weapons.
Otherwise, ``Pakistan will be compelled to enhance its nuclear and missile
capabilities and operational readiness to preserve deterrence,'' he said.
Aziz urged the United Nations to intervene in the Kashmir imbroglio. He said
people in Kashmir - the only Muslim-majority state in predominantly Hindu India - should
have a chance to vote against staying under Indian rule.
But India's Singh told the General Assembly that Kashmir was an integral part of
India and its future was not negotiable. He also defended India's nuclear weapons, saying
it had been obliged to acquire them because neighboring Pakistan and China possess them.
The United States, the European Union, Japan and most other countries have urged India and
Pakistan to roll back their nuclear programs. The two countries have refused to open
negotiations.
