[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2334-E2335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  INDIA FACES THREAT OF SELF-DETERMINATION, PROFESSOR SAYS, FACES NO 
                            EXTERNAL THREAT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 1997

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I noted with interest the recent remarks of 
Dr. Ainslie Embree, a professor at Columbia University, at a seminar on 
``India's Regional Security''

[[Page E2335]]

held recently at the Henry Stimson Center here in Washington.
  Professor Embree stated categorically that India faces no external 
threat. The imminent threat to India is the movements for self-
determination throughout the subcontinent, he said. He cited the 
freedom movement in Kashmir as the most immediate, but also cited the 
freedom struggles in Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab, Khalistan. India 
takes the position that self-determination movements are only used 
legitimately against a colonial power, but that once a country is 
independent no part of that country can claim its independence, as the 
Sikh nation did on October 7, 1987, when it reclaimed its freedom, 
forming the separate, sovereign country of Khalistan. Sikhs ruled 
Punjab until the British annexation in 1849 and were to receive 
sovereign power in 1947 when India was made independent, so clearly it 
is now India that is the occupying colonial power in Khalistan, as well 
as Kashmir, Nagaland, and many other countries in South Asia. In fact, 
there was no political entity called India until the British created it 
in the nineteenth century.
  Professor Embree said that India will have to resolve the Kashmir 
issue by letting the people of Kashmir exercise their political will 
through the referendum they were promised in 1948, but which India has 
never allowed to be held.
  Despite facing no external threat, India is building up its military 
might, especially its nuclear capacity. Two Indian scientists admitted 
in mid-October that India's supposedly peaceful nuclear explosion in 
1974 was a bomb. In addition, the chief of the Indian infantry said on 
October 23 that the Indian military is being trained in nuclear and 
chemical warfare. A secret report, revealed on October 16, shows that 
Indian plans to produce enough plutonium for 50 nuclear bombs within 
three years.
  These frightening developments raise a troubling question: If India 
faces no external threat, why is it producing nuclear weapons and 
training its troops for nuclear war? There are only two possible 
answers. Either these weapons are a means of tightening the repression 
or India is planning to start a war with a neighbor, presumably 
Pakistan. I would warn India right now: The world will find any nuclear 
attack unacceptable and a war will only strengthen the hand of the 
freedom movements in the countries India occupies.
  In light of these revelations, especially since India refuses to sign 
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, India should be declared a nuclear 
threat to the world and appropriate security measures should be taken. 
We should place tough sanctions on India, cut off its aid, and support 
the movements for self-determination in Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, 
and all the nations of South Asia. We must support freedom wherever and 
whenever we can. We can make a real difference in South Asia. We must 
begin supporting freedom in South Asia now.
  I am inserting an article from the news service NNI on Professor 
Embree's remarks into the Record.

       India Faces Internal Threat Not External; American Experts

                          (By Ainslie Embree)

       Washington, October 28 (NNI).--The only threat to Indian 
     security is internal not external, and the internal threat is 
     the ``self determination threat,'' said Dr. Ainslie Embree 
     Professor Columbia University speaking at a seminar held at 
     Henry Stimson Center Washington. The topic was ``India's 
     Regional Security''. He was the key-note speaker.
       Dr. Ainslie said India as well as Israel had been driving 
     for commercial and cultural hegemony over the world. Focusing 
     on Indian claims, he pointed out that in the brief 50 years 
     of independence, India had already lost the role that the 
     sub-continent played in the region during the Mughal and the 
     British rules.
       He said that during early days of independence Nehru 
     defined India's problems as the communal problem, the caste 
     problem and the language problem, but Nehru failed to mention 
     the self determination as India's biggest problem. He said 
     ironically, India itself was a big supporter of self 
     determination in those days, and would support all the 
     liberation movements against the colonial powers in Africa, 
     Asia or Latin America.
       India changed its position on self determination in 1966, 
     said Dr. Ainsilie. He said that since 1966 India pronounced 
     the self determination movement as a movement against an 
     alien occupation, foreign occupation or a colonial occupation 
     only; and once a country was independent, no part of that 
     country could claim independence, and thus no self 
     determination movement was acceptable.
       The first self determination example of South Asia is 
     Pakistan, said Dr. Ainsilie, adding Pakistan was the result 
     of self determination movement by the Muslims of the sub-
     continent. He said apart from several self determination 
     movements of South Asia stretching from Nagaland to Tamilnad 
     to Punjab, the most important, most lasting one is the self 
     determination movement of the Kashmiris.
       He said India will have to resolve the Kashmir issue, even 
     if it considers the UN resolution as an extreme position and 
     impracticable, India cannot ignore the movement and will have 
     to let Kashmiris exercise their will.
       Dr. Ainsilie emphasized that Kashmir is the core issue 
     between Pakistan and India, and no one in Pakistan is 
     interested in the small matters like visa or trade facility, 
     while is not ready to accept the Kashmir problem as a 
     problem.
       On Siachen, Dr. Ainslie said that Pakistan's position was 
     logistically better than India's, so that Pakistan had to 
     spend much less than India. India is bleeding at Siachen, he 
     added.
       Dr. Ainslie Embree is also a member of Kashmir Study Group, 
     and the team leader who recently visited Pakistan, where he 
     met with Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub, Information Minister 
     Syed Mushahid Hussain, Minister of State for ``Agenda 2001'' 
     Ahsan Iqbal.

     

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