Activists send peace petition to India and Pakistan
Date: 17-Jan-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner John Hallam said the international petition urged the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals to withdraw troops from their border and hold talks to reduce tensions.
Despite recent moves by Pakistan to clamp down on Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, he said the situation "remains tense and potentially explosive, with no room for error".
The Indian and Pakistani armies have been facing off across their heavily fortified frontier since a bloody raid on the Indian parliament last month which India blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim rebels.
Kashmir has been the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947.
The letter was faxed from Sydney to the offices of Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and also their foreign ministers, U.N. missions in New York and Australian high commissions.
Coordinated by Friends of the Earth Australia, and Indian and Pakistani activists, the signatories included Greenpeace, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and about 20 parliamentarians from Europe, Canada and Australia.
Many of the signatories were from Indian and Pakistani non-governmental organisations.
"A military conflict could all too easily become a devastating nuclear exchange, which would destroy both countries as functioning entities, with casualties in the millions," the letter said.
"Eliminating the risk of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan is a goal which must take precedence over all other possible political and security goals as it concerns the continued physical survival of both nations."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrive in South Asia on Wednesday to try to nudge the neighbours towards peace.
