[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 11 (Friday, January 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S487-S490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REDUCING NUCLEAR TENSIONS IN THE WORLD
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I rise on a matter of great concern to me
and all those who are concerned about reducing nuclear tensions in the
world, who are concerned about nonproliferation, and who are in favor
of and concerned about a comprehensive test ban treaty. I might point
out that in the State of the Union Message last Tuesday, President
Clinton said that one of the things he wanted to accomplish was a
comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.
Most experts agree that nowhere on Earth is the potential for a
nuclear
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confrontation more real today than on the Indian subcontinent. Recent
news has only served to heighten those concerns.
According to an article in the December 15, 1995, issue of the New
York Times, ``U.S. intelligence experts suspect that India may be
preparing for its first nuclear test since 1974.'' Needless to say, Mr.
President, this is alarming news and it cannot be taken lightly.
Mr. President, this is the article from the New York Times, Friday,
December 15: ``U.S. Suspects India Prepares To Conduct Nuclear Test.''
The day after that, on December 16--I might add in this article of
December 15, the Indian spokesman said that that is not what it was. He
said that these were army exercises whose ``movements have been
absurdly misinterpreted.'' That was on December 15.
On December 16, the next day, a story in the New York Times: ``India
Denies Atom-Test Plan But Then Turns Ambiguous.''
It went on to say that the Indian Government denied it was planning
its first nuclear test, and a few hours later recast its position to
describe as ``highly speculative'' a report in the New York Times that
quoted American intelligence experts as saying they suspected an Indian
test was being prepared.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these two articles be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, Dec. 15, 1995]
U.S. Suspects India Prepares To Conduct Nuclear Test
(By Tim Weiner)
Washington, December 14.--American intelligence experts
suspect India is preparing for its first nuclear test since
1974, Government officials said today.
The United States is working to discourage it, fearing a
political chain reaction among nuclear nations.
In recent weeks, spy satellites have recorded scientific
and technical activity at the Pokaran test site in the
Rajasthan desert in India. But intelligence experts said they
could not tell whether the activity involved preparations for
exploding a nuclear bomb or some other experiment to increase
India's expertise in making nuclear weapons.
``We're not sure what they're up to,'' a Government
official said. ``The big question is what their motive is. If
their motive is to get scientific knowledge, it might be
months or years before they do the test. If it's for purely
political reasons, it could be this weekend. We don't know
the answer to those questions.''
Shive Mukherjee, Press Minister of the Indian Embassy here,
said today that the activities at the nuclear test site were
army exercises whose ``movements have been absurdly
misinterpreted.''
The Congress Party of India, which has governed the country
most of the years since independence in 1947, is facing a
serious challenge from a right-wing Hindu nationalist party.
United States Government officials say a nuclear weapons test
could be used by the Congress Party as a symbol of its
political potency.
Despite efforts to persuade the world's nuclear powers to
sign a comprehensive test ban treaty, China and France have
tested nuclear weapons in recent months. If India follows
suit, its neighbor, Pakistan, with which it has tense
relations, may also test a nuclear weapon, Government and
civilian experts said. Neither country has signed the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
``It's going to have a nuclear snowball effect,'' said Gary
Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms
Control in Washington and a leader civilian expert on the
spread of nuclear weapons. ``It also jeopardizes the
possibility that the world will sign a comprehensive test ban
treaty next year.''
A State Department official who spoke on condition of
anonymity said that if India exploded a nuclear bomb, it
``would be a matter of great concern and a serious setback to
nonproliferation efforts.''
``The United States is committed to the early completion of
a comprehensive test ban,'' the official said. ``We are
observing a moratorium on nuclear testing and we have called
upon all nations to demonstrate similar restraint.''
But not all nations have heard the call.
India says publicly that it wants the complete elimination
of nuclear weapons. But its nuclear hawks argue that the
United States and Russia will never live up to that ideal and
that a comprehensive test ban that is not linked to drastic
reductions in the world's nuclear arsenals could leave India
a second-rate or third-rate nuclear power.
Mr. Milhollin said India did not have a great archive of
test data for nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a
warhead and placed on a missile. ``Once the test ban treaty
comes in, they will be data-poor,'' he said ``A test now
would supply them data, it would be a tremendous plus for the
Congress Party, it would give them a big boost in the
elections.''
Political pressure for a nuclear test is building among
India's right wing. ``They are saying: `What are we sitting
around for? Why should we sign a test ban treaty not linked
to the reduction of nuclear weapons?' '' said Selig S.
Harrison, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace.
In 1974 India exploded what was believed to be a Hiroshima-
sized bomb equal to 12,000 tons of TNT, which it called a
``peaceful nuclear explosion.'' It renewed its program some
years later, and in 1989 the Director of Central
Intelligence, William H. Webster, testified that India had
resumed research on thermonuclear weapons.
While India has sought to limit the nuclear abilities of
China, it is most concerned about the nuclear-weapons program
of Pakistan, although Pakistan has not acknowledged it has
one. The two countries have had three wars, unending
political tensions and constant border disputes since they
were formed by the partition of India in 1947 after its
independence from Britain.
A subnuclear experiment, which would not involve a nuclear
explosion, might not have the political effect of a full-
fledged detonation. But Administration officials said they
feared that any test would create pressure on Pakistan to
follow suit.
``We look at this in a balance with Pakistan,'' a White
house official said.
____
[From the New York Times, Dec. 16, 1995]
India Denies Atom-Test Plan But Then Turns Ambiguous
(By John F. Burns)
New Delhi, Dec. 15.--The Indian Government denied today
that it was planning its first nuclear test since 1974, then
recast its position a few hours later to describe as ``highly
speculative'' a report in the New York Times today that
quoted American intelligence experts as saying they suspected
an Indian test was being prepared.
The Government offered no explanation for the change in its
statements. But the effect was to leave open the possibility
that an underground test is being prepared or that the
Government wants to keep alive the impression that it has the
option to conduct a test.
Senior political, military and scientific officials in
India gathered to discuss the response to the Times report,
which said United States spy satellites had detected
preparations at the Pokaran test site in Rajasthan, 340 miles
west of New Delhi.
Western intelligence agencies say India has been pursuing a
secret nuclear weapons program intensively for years.
Someone faxed a copy of the Times article to the Foreign
Ministry shortly after the first edition of the newspaper
went on sale in New York on Thursday night. Within an hour,
Arif Khan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, telephoned the Times
bureau in New Delhi with a denial. ``There is no truth in
this,'' he said. ``There is no question of any test being
conducted.''
Mr. Khan said the technical activity detected could have
been related to ``routine military exercises,'' including a
recent air force training operation in the area, which is
near the Pakistan border.
After the high-level officials had met to discuss the
issue, Mr. Khan held a briefing for reporters, and was
cautious in his responses, avoiding outright denial. ``It is
a totally speculative kind of report,'' he said. When a
reporter asked if the speculation was true or false, he
replied: ``There is no such thing as true speculation.
Speculation is speculation.''
By encouraging uncertainty about its plans the Government
appeared to be following the ambiguous policy it has laid
down since the test at Pokaran on May 18, 1974. That test
stunned Western governments that had hoped that India would
turn its back on nuclear weapons. At the time, India
described the test of a Hiroshima-sized bomb equal to about
12,000 tons of TNT, as ``a peaceful nuclear explosion,'' a
description Mr. Khan repeated today.
India's program to perfect nuclear warheads has been
presented as a contingency plan, not as a program aimed at
building or deploying nuclear weapons. Mr. Khan re-affirmed
this position today, saying, ``While we have the capability,
we have not utilized it, because we believe in the peaceful
uses of nuclear energy and not for weapons purposes.''
But behind this public stance, Indian experts said,
pressures have been building for new tests. The experts said
the tests would measure the effectiveness of development
since 1974, allowing scientists to measure the efficiency of
new approaches to bomb-making, including miniaturization of
warheads and new triggering mechanisms.
But others said the main pressure has been political. While
the nuclear debate here has focused on Pakistan, which has
been identified by United States intelligence officials as
having its own secret nuclear weapons program, officials say
India's long-range concerns focus more on China, which has at
least 450 nuclear-armed ballistic missiles capable of
striking targets in India.
Mr. HARKIN. India has denied but Indian officials have failed to
state clearly and categorically that India will refrain from testing. I
fear, and many others fear, if India proceeds with its testing program
then Pakistan will feel obligated for their own security reasons to
follow suit. This deadly game of
[[Page S489]]
chicken would almost certainly escalate.
To make matters even more troubling, reports today indicate that
international negotiations in Geneva on a comprehensive nuclear test
ban treaty are being severely complicated, perhaps even undermined, by
India's insistence to link a test ban with total nuclear disarmament.
Mr. President, India must be reminded that a nuclear test will
trigger severe economic sanctions. U.S. military and economic aid, U.S.
support for loans by the World Bank and other multilateral
institutions, and export licenses, would all be suspended.
Mr. President, it is time for both India and Pakistan to pull back
from a nuclear collision course. It is time to end the nuclear saber-
rattling and begin real talks at the negotiating table. To that end,
Mr. President, I commend the recent statement by Pakistan Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto expressing Pakistan's willingness to meet with
India anywhere in the world at any time to ensure that what happened in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki does not happen in Pakistan or India. I hope
Indian officials take up her offer. It is the right thing to do.
The fact is that in the two decades since India's first nuclear
weapons test, Pakistan has initiated at least eight proposals to reduce
or eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons in that region. Most
recently, it proposed the creation of a missile-free zone in all of
South Asia. Each time, India has resisted these proposals.
Mr. President, I had a chart prepared which is the Pakistani
proposals that they have provided, that they have produced over the
years, trying to seek an accommodation, trying to keep nuclear weapons
from being produced in their area. I might just briefly go through
those.
First, to establish a nuclear weapons free-zone in South Asia,
proposed in 1974; second, to issue a joint Indo-Pakistan declaration
renouncing the acquisition and manufacture of nuclear weapons, proposed
in 1978; to have mutual inspections by India and Pakistan of nuclear
facilities, proposed in 1979; for simultaneous adherence to NPT by
India and Pakistan, proposed in 1979; to endorse a simultaneous
acceptance of full-scope international atomic energy agency safeguards,
proposed in 1979; for agreement on a bilateral or regional nuclear test
ban treaty, proposed in 1987; to commence a multilateral conference on
the question of nuclear proliferation in South Asia, proposed in 1991;
and to create a missile-free zone in all of South Asia, proposed in
1993.
These are the steps that Pakistan has proposed over the years to
reduce the level of tensions, to stop the production of nuclear weapons
in that area. Each time that they have proposed this, India has
resisted these proposals.
Mr. President, since the end of the cold war, solving nuclear
tensions in the Indian subcontinent has been a leading nonproliferation
goal of the United States. At best, this senseless arms race would
squander billions of dollars and decrease security in the region and
beyond. For this reason I call on my colleagues to join me in urging
India to clearly state that it will refrain from nuclear testing.
Furthermore, I call on the administration to support efforts to bring
both India and Pakistan together for negotiations to eliminate the
threat of nuclear proliferation in that region once and for all.
Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent to have printed in the
Record an editorial that appears in the Chicago Tribune, Sunday,
January 7, 1996, entitled ``The Nuclear Danger In South Asia.''
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Chicago Tribune, Jan. 7, 1996]
The Nuclear Danger in South Asia
Here's question certain to unsettle those who still delude
themselves that the end of the Cold War eliminated the menace
of potential nuclear war on planet Earth: Is there an
international rivalry today, one so unstable and hostile,
that nuclear weapons might be launched in anger?
According to those in the government charged with keeping
an American eagle on this problem, the answer, sadly, is yes.
Not so very likely between the U.S. and Russia, they say--
thank goodness!--nor between the U.S. and China. And while
the two Koreas remain locked in a standoff of highly hostile
intent, the South has no nuclear capability.
A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is the most likely
scenario. Partitioned from former British colonial territory,
the two nations are divided by religion and already have
fought three wars over territory.
The Bush administration went so far as to say in private
that it believed the 1990 Indo-Pakistani dispute over the
province of Kashmir might have gone nuclear had shooting
started in that crisis.
That's why reports from the U.S. intelligence community
that India is preparing for another nuclear test, its first
in 21 years, are worrisome. Why would India want to throw a
match into this tinderbox?
The government of India denies American accusations, that
it is about to conduct a nuclear operation at its Pokaran
test site in the Rajasthan desert. But American experts say
that two motivations may be driving India to a new round of
testing.
First, the sitting government has been stung by weak
electoral showings and can read public opinion that favors a
strong defense, including nuclear arms.
And second, India wants to publicly defy the will of the
major nuclear powers, which are urging treaties that would
forever bar new states from seeking nuclear defenses. India
derides such a system of dividing the world into ``bomb
haves'' and ``bomb have-nots'' as ``nuclear apartheid.''
Why should the world care if India and Pakistan continue to
go nuclear? There are reasons of the heart and of the mind.
Between them, India and Pakistan are home to a full one-
fifth of the world's population, and even a nuclear exchange
``limited'' to a few warheads would present a humanitarian
and ecological disaster of near-biblical proportions.
And to be coldly realistic, nobody knows what would happen
once the nuclear tobaoo was broken, but the liberating
effects--and on possible enemies of the United States--cannot
be dismissed. The nuclear genie must remain locked in the
bottle.
Thus, India must be dissuaded in every way possible from
conducting a nuclear test. And it should join in
understanding that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will make the whole planet
safer for all by limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and
know-how.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I have several articles from newspapers
around the country talking about the problem of nuclear proliferation
in that part of the world, talking about the indications that India may
be ready to conduct a nuclear test. I ask unanimous consent that the
various articles be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, Dec. 15, 1995]
Arrest in Pakistan Blast
Islamabad, Pakistan,--December 14.--Pakistan is holding a
Canadian relief worker of Egyptian origin, apparently in
connection with the suicide bombing of the Egyptian Embassy
in Islamabad on Nov. 19, his wife said today.
Maha Elsamna, 38, said that the police detained her
husband, Ahmed Saeed Khadr, regional director of the
Canadian-based aid agency Human Concern International, in
Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan on Dec. 3.
Ms. Elsamna said her husband was detained by the police a
day after returning from Afghanistan.
____
[From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 14, 1995]
World in Brief--Pakistan Accuses the United States of Meddling Over
Killings
Islamabad, Pakistan.--Pakistan accused the U.S. government
yesterday of meddling in its affairs after Washington
expressed concern over a sharp rise in killings of people
detained by security forces.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Monday that
the Clinton administration ``deplores the senseless murder of
family members of government and political leaders'' in
Karachi, Pakistan's violence-plagued largest city. His
comments followed the shooting deaths of Nasir Hussain, 62,
and Arif Hussain, 28, the brother and nephew of Altaf
Hussain, the opposition leader blamed for leading an ethnic
war against the Karachi authorities.
A Pakistani human-rights official, Iqbal Haider, sharply
criticized the State Department yesterday, saying its
statement was ``uncalled for and a clear interference in
Pakistan's internal affairs.'' He accused Washington of
ignoring the deaths of law-enforcement officers, nearly 200
of whom have been killed in Karachi in the last six months as
a result of the ethnic violence.
Mr. HARKIN. Again, Mr. President, it is time to reduce the tensions
in that area. The best way to do that is to use our good offices, the
administration, and also to let our voices be heard so that our friends
in India--and I say that forthrightly; India is not an enemy of ours.
They are a friend of ours. We have relations with India. But they have
to understand the gravity of this situation. They have to understand
that if they would clearly state that they will not conduct nuclear
testing, how much further that would advance the cause of peace and
reduce the tensions in that area.
[[Page S490]]
Perhaps then we can get about bringing both India and Pakistan
together, to stall the problems that we have in Kashmir, where
thousands of innocent people are losing their lives. It need not be
that way. We can solve these problems. But India must first renounce
the use of nuclear weapons and must first state very clearly that they
are not going to conduct nuclear testing.
With that out of the road, and I believe the pathway would be clear
for this administration and for other governments to get India and
Pakistan together to solve the outstanding problems that continue to
engulf the entire area.
____________________