[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 128 (Thursday, October 3, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1738-E1739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INDIAN COMPANIES SELLING MILITARY MATERIALS TO IRAQ

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 2, 2002

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, just as we are about to go to war 
with Iraq, supposedly democratic India is propping up that brutal 
dictatorship.
  According to an article in the September 25 issue of the Times of 
India by Rashmee Z. Ahmed, Iraq possesses some of the deadliest weapons 
of mass destructions and missile infrastructures thanks to the illicit 
help of Indian companies. One such company, NEC Engineers Private 
Limited, has ``extensive links in Iraq,'' according to the article. 
Although such transactions violate India's export control laws, they 
are apparently taking place with a wink and a nod from the Indian 
government. Earlier I exposed India's oil transactions with Iraq, which 
violates UN sanctions.
  In spite of this, according to the September 18 issue of the Times of 
India, the United States and India are conducting joint naval 
exercises.
  On January 2, the Washington Times exposed the fact that India is 
sponsoring cross-border terrorism in the province of Sindh in Pakistan. 
India's leading newsmagazine, India Today, reported that India created 
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which the United States 
government calls a ``terrorist organization.'' The U.S. State 
Department reported that the Indian government paid 41,000 cash 
bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. According to the Indian 
newspaper Hitavada, the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, 
received $1.5 billion from the Indian government to forment terrorism 
in Punjab and Kashmir. The book Soft Target shows that the Indian 
government blew up its own airliner in 1985 to blame Sikhs. This has 
been discussed many times.
  If India is practicing and sponsoring terrorism and helping to build 
Saddam Hussein's war machine, why are we conducting joint naval 
exercises with India? Isn't this like conducting joint exercises with 
the enemy? I call on the Defense Department to call off these 
exercises.
  Mr. Speaker, we can help bring freedom to South Asia and end India's 
flirtation with terrorist enemies of the United States. The time has 
come to impose sanctions on India, cut off its aid, and openly declare 
our support for self-determination for all the people of the 
subcontinent. This is the best way to help see to it that everyone in 
that troubled region can live in freedom, dignity, prosperity, 
stability, and peace.
  I am inserting the articles from the Times of India into the Record.

               [From the Times of India, Sept. 25, 2002]

                   Indian Firms Arming Iraq, Says UK

                         (By Rashmee Z. Ahmed)

       London: Britain has alleged that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is 
     able and willing to deploy some of its deadliest weapons of 
     mass destruction in under one hour from the order being given 
     and that it possesses missile infrastructure produced with 
     the illicit help of Indian companies.
       The British claims of Indian involvement are contained in a 
     55-page dossier controversially and uniquely published by 
     Tony Blair on Tuesday on the basis of what he called 
     ``unprecedented and secret'' intelligence information.
       The dossier, received by largely skeptical political, press 
     and public opinion here, tries to make a case for a Gulf War 
     II-type operation to disarm Saddam and ``regime change''. 
     Repeating US and UK claims that Baghdad continues to improve 
     its missile capability, the dossier names names when it comes 
     to alleged Indian support for Iraqi missile production.
       The document, which only obliquely blames ``Africa'' for 
     supplying uranium to Saddam's secret nuclear weapons 
     programme, pinpoints India as part of the supply chain for 
     banned propellant chemicals destined for ballistic missiles. 
     One of these, ammonium perchlorate, the dossier says, was 
     ``illicitly'' provided by an Indian company, NEC Engineers 
     Private Limited, which had ``extensive links in Iraq'', 
     particularly to its al-Mamoun missile production plant and 
     Fallujah 2 chlorine plant.
       Analysts added that in an intriguing insight, the dossier 
     appeared to indicate that much of this had been known to New 
     Delhi for some time.
       ``(The) Indian authorities recently suspended its (the 
     company's) export license'' after ``an extensive 
     investigation'', the dossier says, ``although other 
     individuals and companies are still illicitly procuring for 
     Iraq''.
       In what defense experts suggested was yet another 
     indication of a host of ``front companies'' in India and 
     elsewhere, the dossier further says the machine tools and raw 
     materials supply chain crucially remains in place for Iraq's 
     al-Samoud and longer-range missile systems.
       Even as Iraq refuted the dossier's claims as ``totally 
     baseless'' and a ``Zionist campaign'', Blair went before a 
     heated emergency session of the British parliament to 
     declare, ``regime change would be a wonderful thing''.
       Blair's dossier, which precedes Washington's promised 
     evidence on Iraq, was greeted by boredom and yawns among 
     sections of the pundits and politicians, who said it 
     crucially lacked the so-called killer fact.
       Commentators said the dossier, which Blair described as 
     primarily for the British people, may do little to persuade 
     opinion further afield, notably India. India has long said 
     that it is opposed to military intervention in Iraq and that 
     ``regime change'' is an issue for the Iraqi people.


                         Indian diplomats react

       Responding to the allegations in Blair's dossier, Navdeep 
     Suri, spokesman for the Indian High Commission confirmed that 
     the case against the company, NEC, had been charged and the 
     matter was currently sub-judice.
       He said, ``such actions are in violation of India's export 
     control laws and whenever such a violation comes to the 
     government's attention, firm action is taken''. He declined 
     to comment on what he called ``speculative statements'' about 
     ``other (Indian) individuals and companies'' continuing to 
     procure illicit material for Iraq.

                                  ____
                                  

          [lsqb]From the Hindustan Times, Sept. 23, 2002[rsqb]

               Labour MP Stokes Khalistan fire in Britain

                            (By Sanjay Suri)

       Wolverhampton, September 23.--A senior ruling Labour Party 
     MP has supported a demand for a separate Sikh state of 
     Khalistan if the move is made ``peacefully and 
     democratically''.
       Rob Marris, Labur MP, expressed his support at a meeting 
     organized by a pro-Khalistan group in a gurdwara in 
     Wolverhampton Sunday.
       At the same meeting a senior shadow minister of the 
     Conservative Party expressed support for Sikhs in Britain to 
     register themselves as Sikhs and not Indians.
       Rob Marris, who is treasurer of the All Party Panjabis in 
     Britain Parliamentary Group, expressed strong support for the 
     Sikh Agenda that the Sikh Secretariat has produced. The 
     agenda calls for Sikhs to be registered as separate from 
     Indians in Britain, and calls for self-determination in 
     Punjab.
       Marris addressed specifically the demand for Khalistan 
     raised at the meeting. ``That is an issue dear to your hearts 
     I can see by looking down the hall. Those in the Indian

[[Page E1739]]

     subcontinent, who peacefully and democratically push for 
     self-determination for that part of the Indian subcontinent, 
     their opinion for self-determination, their right for an 
     independent Khalistan should not be suppressed.''
       The comment was followed by loud cries of Khalistan 
     zindabad.
       Marris said it would not be right for parties in Britain to 
     decide whether there should be self-determination in that 
     part of the subcontinent. ``But it would be right for people 
     to democratically and peacefully express their opinions.''
       A senior shadow minister of the Conservative Party declared 
     at the meeting of Khalistanis Sunday that the Conservatives 
     will give Sikhs the option to register as Sikhs and not 
     Indians when the party comes to power.
       The announcement follows backing to the Khalistanis' demand 
     by two senior shadow ministers of the Conservative Party 
     earlier. The developments at the meeting Sunday mark rapid 
     strides the Khalistani group has made in Britain in recent 
     weeks. There has been little evidence of support for the 
     Khalistanis among Sikhs, but strong Conservative Party 
     backing to this group pursuing what they call the ``Sikh 
     agenda'' has given them new prominence.
       The Sikh Secretariat, which organised the meeting in 
     Wolverhampton, had said 10,000 would attend. Only a few 
     hundred came, most of them brought in coachloads from London 
     and Southampton.
       Caroline Spelman, shadow cabinet minister for international 
     development and women's affairs, told the meeting that the 
     Sikhs are a distinctive group, ``and yet we have very little 
     idea how many Sikhs there are''.
       Spelman said: ``At best that is discourteous, at worst it 
     deprives you of proper monitoring of what your needs are.''
       She said it was ``extraordinary'' that an opportunity to 
     find out had been missed in the 2001 census.
       She said the Labour government should monitor Sikhs 
     separately and ``if they fail, then that will be a task for a 
     Conservative administration to deliver on''.
       The move is politically loaded. It would give Sikhs the 
     option to declare themselves Sikhs and not Indians. It would 
     mean that the estimated 1.2 million Indian population in 
     Britain could fall to about half of that on the records.
       Marris supported the demand for separate listing of Sikhs 
     in Britain. He said there would be many opportunities to do 
     so before the 2011 census.
       Amrik Singh Gill, who heads the group that called the 
     meeting, said Khalistan ``is the only way out'' for Sikhs and 
     that ``we will get our own rule''. Posters of separatist 
     leader Bhindranwale lined the walls of the hall where the 
     meeting was held.

     

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