NEW DELHI, 20 March 2003 — India reiterated a warning yesterday against unilateral military action in Iraq, while urging Baghdad to implement UN Security Council resolutions.
“The Indian government has already made its position clear. Iraq should implement the UN resolutions but if there are any problems, the UN Security Council should deal with it,” Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani told reporters in New Delhi.
“Unilateralism will not only harm the Security Council but in future it will also harm the entire world,” Advani said.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment that the UN Security Council was unable to act collectively on Iraq and urged restraint as long as there was a chance of peaceful disarmament. “Our counsel has been against war and in favor of peace. We have emphasized that all decisions on Iraq must be taken under the authority of the United Nations,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We have stated that any move for change in regime in Iraq should come from within and not be imposed from outside,” it added.
Last week, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee urged Washington and its allies to give Iraq more time to disarm and warned that any unilateral action would leave the United Nations “deeply scarred”.
Vajpayee’s statement was delivered in Parliament following criticism from the opposition that India’s stand on the crisis was not clear.
It also followed reports in the local media that the United States had been pressing India to temper its criticism of a war in exchange for a role in Iraq’s reconstruction. Defense Minister George Fernandes on Sunday said India would not allow US or allied warplanes to refuel on its territory in case of war in Iraq, although he said no such request had been made.
In the 1991 Gulf War, India had initially opposed the US-led operation to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait but allowed US planes to refuel in Bombay.
Reuters adds: Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators, mostly Muslim men, were detained in Bombay yesterday as they shouted slogans and tried to breach a security barricade near the US Consulate.
Nearly 500 protesters, shouting “Down with Bush, down with Bush”, were bundled into police vans and taken away as Washington’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein neared its end.
The protesters, who belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party, which is part of Maharashtra’s ruling coalition, carried placards that said “No war, only peace” and “War is destruction”.
Protests against a war on Iraq have been increasing in India, bringing together trade unions, Communists, Muslims and students.
In eastern city of Calcutta, artists joined dozens of prostitutes and shouted slogans near the American Center against the expected US-led attack on Iraq.
“America, take your hands off Iraq,” shouted about a 100 marchers, consisting mainly of sex workers, some well-known painters and social activists.
“War hurts the economic prospects of poor people and its impact won’t be restricted to Iraq. Doesn’t America know that?” Swapna Gayen, a sex worker wearing a red bindi (dot) on her forehead, a bright red sari and gold-plated earrings, said.
The head of the Missionaries of Charity, the global order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa in 1950, said war should be avoided.
“We pray with all our hearts the war may be averted because the poor are always the ones to suffer the most,” Sister Nirmala said in a statement from Calcutta, the order’s headquarters. She also expressed concern about four nuns of the order who had chosen to stay in Baghdad to look after crippled orphans. Three are from India and one is from Bangladesh.
