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India Deal Makes US a Nuclear Proliferator
By Ranjit Devraj
03/06/06 --NEW DELHI, Mar 4 (IPS) - Campaigners for a nuclear-free South Asia
are aghast at the potential nightmare that lies ahead following the
nuclear technology and fuel deal announced here this week by
visiting United States President George W. Bush and Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh.
''This deal may have further complicated an already difficult
situation in South Asia which has two rival self-declared nuclear
weapon states,'' said N.D. Jayaprakash, lead campaigner for the
Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), which counts among
its ranks well-known scientists and intellectuals.
''What is sad is that nowhere in all this did the idea that nuclear
weapons are not safe in anybody's hands come up, and now, far from
the disarmament debate, the clamour by other countries that they too
be allowed to possess nuclear weapons has grown louder,'' he added.
Pakistan, where Bush was rounding off his four-day South Asian tour
on Saturday, was first off the block demanding a civilian nuclear
technology deal similar to the one Washington signed with its
regional rival on the grounds that it was short on fossil fuel.
But, at a televised press conference in Islamabad, Bush ruled out
any such deal with Pakistan. ''We discussed the civilian nuclear
programme and I explained to him (Musharraf) that Pakistan and India
are different countries with different needs and different
histories,'' Bush said.
''What is happening is that, with this deal, the U.S. has itself
become the biggest proliferator of nuclear technology,'' Prof.
Anuradha Chinoy, disarmament specialist at the Jawaharalal Nehru
University (JNU), told IPS in an interview. ''The only difference is
that what the U.S. is practicing is selective proliferation.''
Chinoy said the deal went against the ideal of universal disarmament
and would only make aspirant countries, denied entry into the select
nuclear club, even more dangerous and desperate, as could be seen
from the examples of Iran, Pakistan and North Korea.. Iran has
already accused the U.S. and India of double standards. As its case
moves towards a likely reference to the U.N. Security Council, Iran
will certainly raise the 'double standards' pitch.
Worst of all, said Chinoy, the ''U.S. and India are now partners in
violating international law by not involving the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG) before agreeing to transfer nuclear fuel and
technology''.
Both the IAEA and the NSG are United Nations bodies.
Indian newspapers, however, have been hailing the deal as a triumph
for its negotiators' skills. They succeeded in keeping the country's
demonstrated capacity to make nuclear weapons away from
international inspections while gaining access to advanced reactors
and technology for its civilian programme.
On top of that India has all along refused to be signatory to the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) on the grounds that it was
discriminatory. It carried out nuclear tests in 1974, attracting
international sanctions, but defiantly went on to declare itself a
nuclear weapons state in 1998 through a second round of tests.
Following Thursday's deal, Singh told a press conference that under
the Indo-U.S. pact the NSG and the IAEA would be made to formulate
India-specific safeguards. Under existing rules, by contrast, the
NSG cannot supply 'dual-use' nuclear technology to India since it
does not accept full-scope IAEA safeguards on nuclear facilities.
So far, though, the agreement has received praise from IAEA director
general Mohamed El Baradei, who has described it as ''timely for
ongoing efforts to consolidate the non-proliferation regime, combat
nuclear terrorism and strengthen nuclear safety''.
India has been allowed to classify eight of its existing 22 reactors
as military and keep them away from IAEA inspectors and also decide
whether any future reactor it builds ought to be classified as
civilian or military.
Most importantly, India has been able to keep its entire
fast-breeder reactor programme in the military list. Fast breeders
use fission caused by fast neutrons and burn highly concentrated or
enriched fuel and, theoretically, they generate more fissile
material than they consume. And the deal has no caps on fissile
material, including weapons-grade plutonium.
Even before Bush landed in India on Wednesday, Singh made pledged in
parliament that the fast breeder programme, a pet project of India's
secretive Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), would not be
compromised in any way.
''It is possible that DAE officials want to have the option of
producing nuclear fuel for weapons in these unsafeguarded reactors,"
said M.V. Ramana, well-known a physicist at Centre for
Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, located in
southern Indian city of Bangalore.
Another possible reason for the fierce resistance put up by DAE,
through interviews fed to the media by its chief Anil Kakodkar, is
that the fast breeder sites also house facilities for the nuclear
reactor that India is developing for its submarines. ''Indian
authorities probably don't want IAEA inspectors lurking around
there,'' Ramana told IPS. (END/2006)
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
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