NEW DELHI, 21 March 2003 — India yesterday called the US-led attack on Iraq unjustified. While Indian leaders in the past have repeatedly spoken against US strikes on Iraq, the country’s stand was expressed officially for the first time yesterday.
Soon after US and allied forces began attacking targets in Iraq, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee summoned a meeting of his Cabinet colleagues, including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Defense Minister George Fernandes, Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.
Later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters: “It is with the deepest anguish that we have seen reports of the commencement of military action in Iraq. It is a matter of grave concern that continuing differences within the Security Council prevented a harmonization of the positions of its members, resulting in seriously impairing the authority of the UN system.”
Without naming the United States, he said, “The military action begun today thus lacks justification.”
India sincerely hopes that the Iraqi people will not be subjected to further hardships, sufferings, loss of life and damage to property from an extended military operation, Sarna said.
The spokesman expressed India’s support for several pronouncements made by the UN weapons inspection team that military action was “avoidable.”
At the same time, the Indian statement also called for the need for Iraq to disarm. The statement said: “India recognizes the full force and validity of the objective of the international community to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, which is set out in UN Security Council Resolution 1441, under chapter VII of the UN Charter.”
Elaborating on the humanitarian aspect of the Iraqi crisis, Sarna said: “The international community must immediately begin large-scale effort to alleviate the human suffering. India will be ready to play a part in such an effort,.”
The Minister of State for Home I.D. Swami later told reporters in Jammu that the American action in Iraq “is a threat to world peace.” “The bombing of Iraq has placed world peace in danger,” he said.
“India is not going to provide any help to America in its war against Iraq. We have not been approached by the US administration and if the US authorities seek help it may not be available.”
The imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, denounced the war as an attack on Islam and called on Islamic states to rise against the United States.
“Indian Muslims consider the American attack on Iraq as an attack on Islam and humanity, and America, by attacking Iraq, has proved that it does not care for international laws, UN charters or international public opinion,” he said.
Thousands of people in Kashmir protested the start of the war. The main protest was staged in the town of Magam, 27 km (17 miles) west of the summer capital Srinagar, where nearly 5,000 Muslims took to the streets chanting “death to Bush” and “Iraqi people we are with you.”
Legislators in Kashmir’s assembly in the state’s southern winter capital Jammu disrupted proceedings by shouting slogans such as, “Down with George Bush. Shame on Bush”. With proceedings descending into chaos, the speaker adjourned the house.
Police, meanwhile, tightened security at key locations in cities, including around the United States and British missions, fearing attacks by protesters. “We have stepped up our patrolling as well as the security cover mainly around the diplomatic offices of those countries involved in the war,” a police officer said in New Delhi.
U.R. Ananthamurthy, winner of the Jnanpeeth award, has called upon Indians to boycott American goods. The Kannada writer said in Bangalore, “As a people, we have lost sensitivity to the people of Iraq. I plan to go to schools and colleges next week and urge them to stop buying Coke and Pepsi.”
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