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“INDIAN COMPANIES SELLING MILITARY MATERIALS TO IRAQ” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1738-E1739 on Oct. 3, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INDIAN COMPANIES SELLING MILITARY MATERIALS TO IRAQ
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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.
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.
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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 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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