Britain: Nuclear War Threat Over Kashmir Crisis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Britain: Nuclear War Threat Over Kashmir Crisis

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Britain gave warning of the "very real and very disturbing" possibility of nuclear war between India and Pakistan last night as the British Government prepared an emergency mission to Delhi and Islamabad.

U.K. Foreign Minister Jack Straw is to fly to the capitals next week to try to avert ��the most serious conflict in the world in terms of potential casualties and the use of nuclear weapons��.

In a chilling assessment of the escalating tensions in the sub-continent, the Foreign Secretary told journalists: ��The international community is watching events with mounting concern. This is a crisis the world cannot ignore.��

Ministers believe the situation is now so tense that just one provocation could trigger catastrophe, and the murder of a prominent Muslim leader yesterday plunged the region even deeper into trouble. A million soldiers are assembled along the India-Pakistan border, most of them concentrated in the disputed region of Kashmir, where fresh clashes were reported yesterday.

Mr Straw��s mission will be closely co-ordinated with separate efforts by the US and EU and was agreed after dire warnings this week from military intelligence.

According to senior Whitehall sources, one plausible doomsday scenario presented to ministers envisaged the two sides fighting a bloody war that would lead to the first use of atomic weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Mr Straw��s first priority will be to ease India��s anger, in the aftermath of the latest massacre, and urge the Hindu nationlist Government to exercise maximum restraint.

He will tell Pakistan that it must do more to rein in terror groups responsible for cross-border attacks into India and a wave of violence against Western targets, including the killing of French naval workers in Karachi, the murder of an American journalist and threats against British interests in Lahore.

Unlike the Middle East, however, where Britain supports the return of dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians for the creation of a Palestinian state, Mr Straw will have to tread gingerly around the issue of Kashmir��s status. India has consistently refused to discuss the region��s sovereignty.

On a more practical level, Mr Straw and British diplomats are expected to try to build security ties between Islamabad and Delhi that would prevent the two accidentally going to war.

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