The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, May 24, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

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US sanctions on India to go
Aziz Haniffa

Washington, May 23
The USA would lift the remaining sanctions imposed on India before this year-end but not those against Pakistan, a senior US administration official has said.

The sanctions would be lifted on a staggered basis in the next four to five months, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told members of the Congressional Caucus on India, but clarified this would not apply to Pakistan, which is also facing sanctions over the military overthrow of a democratically elected government.

However, during a briefing to the India Caucus, Mr Armitage was circumspect on whether the “Entities List” against India would also be done away with as part of the removal of sanctions.

With regard to Pakistan, the sources said Mr Armitage had clearly indicated that the 4-5 month timeframe for lifting sanctions against India would not apply to Islamabad because in addition to the same sanctions imposed against India, it was subject to many other laws, including Section 501, which denies all economic and military aid to a country where the democratically elected government is ousted in a military coup.

However, in reply to a question from Representative Alcee Hastings, Mr Armitage acknowledged the USA would most likely agree to provide Pakistan with a one-time waiver to obtain some military spare parts to beef up its UN peacekeeping forces that are envisaged to serve in Sierra Leone.

Sources who were in on the meeting told IANS that Mr Armitage, when reminded by the Democratic co-chair of the Caucus, Representative Jim McDermott, that trying to develop a strategic relationship with India was an oxymoron when that country was still under sanctions, had replied that the State Department experts on the issue “want the sanctions to erode away over a period of four to five-month period.”

“They don’t want to eliminate them in one bang,” the sources quoted him as saying.

They said when pressed on the “Entities List”, Mr Armitage said the administration did not have a timeframe on that but it would be under review.

The lifting of sanctions would envisage military-to-military exchanges and the resurrection of US support for assistance to India from multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank vis-a-vis all loans, including non-basic humanitarian assistance. But the retention of the “Entities List” would prevent India from obtaining sophisticated military equipment and dual-use technology.

Mr Armitage briefed the members at length on his recent visit to India to brief the government on President George W. Bush’s National Missile Defence (NMD) proposal and the detailed meetings he held with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and also his discussions with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi.

According to the sources, Mr Armitage informed the Caucus members of his “very good meeting” with Mr Jaswant Singh during which, he said, “we talked about everything.” He acknowledged he was pleasantly surprised at India’s response to the NMD proposal and New Delhi’s agreement in principle with Washington to work towards the reduction of nuclear weapons.

He noted there had been a belief that India would react strongly against the NMD proposal “and would not at all be happy ” about it and he “welcomed” the positive response he received.

Mr Armitage also disclosed to the members the contents of President Bush’s letter to Vajpayee where Bush had clearly stressed of his desire “to build a relationship with India that was not dependent on a third country,” obviously referring to China, and that Washington’s ties with India would stand on its own merits.

In the letter, Mr Bush had also accepted Vajpayee’s invitation to visit India, but Mr Armitage said it was unlikely that such a visit would take place before the fall of this year. Thus, though he said no dates had been fixed, he spoke of consultations going on between the two countries to fix a mutually convenient date for the visit, which at best would be late this year or some time in the first half of 2002.

When some members, particularly Representative Ed Royce of California, the Republican co-chair of the Caucus, and Mr Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, the founder and former co-chair of the Caucus, wanted to know if a military-to-military relationship with India was in the offing, Mr Armitage was once again circumspect.

One source said: “There was no real response from him about that - whether it was going to happen or not, “save for his noting that Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff would be making a 10-hour stopover in New Delhi next month and meeting with his military counterparts.

Meanwhile, he expressed immense satisfaction over the way the Joint Working Group on Terrorism between the USA and India had been “really working so well” with each other and said a high-level team from New Delhi would visit Washington soon to continue the consultations. IANS

Bush on a literal witch-hunt?
L.H. Naqvi

US President George W. Bush made a public statement two years ago in which he said, “I don’t think witchcraft is a religion”. He escaped coming under the curse of an angry witch then.

However, the political indiscretion of attacking witchcraft in the course of an ABC interview has come to haunt him now. He may have to hire the services of the best spin-doctors for avoiding the charge of attacking the human rights of members of “minority religions” in the USA.

Witchcraft, paganism and related faiths have in recent years become fairly popular and the advent of the Internet has helped them spread their message across the continents. They may have allowed President Bush’s uncharitable remark to go unchallegned, but for the rumour that he may bring a legislation to ban witchcraft.

Had Mr Bush the time to surf the Net he would have been surprised at the scale of anger against his thoughtless remark “on a minority religion”. Urgent messages have been sent across the continents to all witchcraft, wiccan and pagan groups to close ranks to stop the witch-hunt from assuming the horrible dimensions of a bygone era. Details of the infamous 1692 Salem massacre may make even those who do not subscribe to their faith to at least speak up for them. The Salem witch trials were started on the complaint of some teenage girls. More than 30 persons were convicted. Nineteen of them were hanged and one was crushed to death by a heavy boulder.

With the US media ignoring the threat of action against the White House by leaders of “minority religions” pagans and wiccans have adopted a unique strategy for “turning the tide of public opinion” against President Bush. Web sites are flooded with details of the atrocities against other faiths by the followers of Christianity. One can pick up details on how Joan of Arc was burnt at the stakes by the British at the bidding of a group of Christian clerics. She was exonerated of the charge of practising witchcraft in 1455 and as a final act of repentance canonised in 1920 by the same church which had passed the sentence of death against her.

Special messages have been sent out through e-mail to Muslim, Hindu and Jew groups in the USA. The Jews have been reminded about the religious identity of those responsible for the Holocaust. The Muslims have been told to look at what happened in Bosnia as also the anti-Christ label slapped on them for justifying the acts of atrocities committed against them by Christian crusaders.

The Hindu groups in the USA hardly need to be reminded about the campaign of calumny against Osho and his followers when the Indian godman set up a commune in Oregon. The popularity of his faith had become a threat to the domination of the Protestant Church. According to an Osho follower seven out of 10 converts to the new faith were Protestants. Osho was put in jail on what his followers term as false charges where he was allegedly administered small doses of poisonous substances. It is indeed true that his health was never the same again on his forced return to his ashram in Pune in 1985.

Janie, a spokesperson of the combined group of wiccans and pagans, told this reporter through e-mail that President Bush was keen to push through a legislation declaring non-mainstream religions “such as witchcraft and paganism” as “not real religions”. Asked the reason why he had singled out witchcraft for attack she pointed to the increasing popularity of the “parallel faiths”. This correspondent counted at least 15 communities on the Net offering all manner of help and guidance to those visiting their sites. Janie said there were more.

The spokesperson said the groups’ first priority was to raise the level of general awareness about the activities of the members of “parallel faiths”. She said “it is only through increasing the level of awareness that we can hope to turn our protest into a mass movement against President Bush’s proposed violation of our human rights. We are peaceful people practising simple and harmless rituals for the benefit of mankind. We do not worship the devil or any other symbol of evil. This is a canard spread against us to justify our victimisation”.

Memebers of the “parallel faiths” are also raising funds to buy media time for explaining their case “to all those interested in the administration of justice and protection of human rights”.