Indian foreign minister rules out sending troops to Iraq
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, July 7, IRNA -- Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh Tuesday emphasized in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) that the question of sending Indian troops to Iraq did not arise and that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was being guided by the unanimous resolution adopted by parliament last year. According to local press reports, Natwar Singh said: "We took into account a number of relevant factors such as ground realities, development of political process, role of the United Nations, public perception in Iraq and of Iraq`s neighbors, national sentiment in India and capacity to spare our troops for Iraq. Accordingly, we have decided not to consider any troop deployment in Iraq. This will continue. I must clarify that India has not been approached recently for dispatch of troops." Singh`s remarks were made during a discussion in the house on the situation in Iraq initiated by P.K. Vasudevan Nair of the Communist Party of India (CPI). While the Indian opposition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stayed away from participation in the day`s proceedings, members of the Left parties, the Janata Dal (Secular), the National Conference, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the MIM made critical references to the violation of human rights by US-led forces in Iraq, the contours of "economic future" (articulated by Indian Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar during his intervention) and foreign policy in the post-Soviet Union era, stand on the trial of Saddam Hussein as well as Singh`s statement during his visit to Washington last month on the "changed situation." In an emotional submission, Singh said any compromise was "inconceivable" and he was distressed to note the reaction back home. The Indian minister said he had called the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary, Harikishan Singh Surjeet, from Washington to clear the air and that he was aware that being a minister in a coalition government meant he had the responsibility to take all allies, both houses of parliament and the nation, along while pursuing an independent foreign policy, whose framework was set by Jawaharlal Nehru. "I am sitting on the chair Jawaharlal Nehru sat," he said. The minister also read out the sequence of events of 2003 including the request of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for India to spare a division of troops for Iraq after which Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to obtain the views of all parties. "All of us can take credit for the move" that eventually led to India`s refusal to spare troops then. Having come under attack for describing that the situation had changed, Singh said he was speaking in the context of the United States having agreed to a UN Security Council resolution. He said two years ago the UN was ignored and, after having adopted a unilateral route, the US had returned to the multilateral forum. "Within the framework of this resolution, we always emphasized the need for an early restoration of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, the right of the Iraqi people to determine freely their political future and control their natural resources and a vital role for the UN in the transitional process and political and economic reconstruction of the country. It is in this spirit that we welcomed the Security Council`s Resolution 1546 as a first step towards transfer of authority to the Iraqi people." Singh said India stood committed to assist the people of Iraq in their humanitarian and reconstruction efforts and that the country had committed US$20 million for this purpose. He said it has also taken steps to assist the Iraqis like the setting up of a training course in India for Iraqi diplomats and for officials in the IT sector, adding that it also has a plan to train Iraqi Oil Ministry officials in upstream/downstream units and to rehabilitate a hospital in that country, among others. He said the government shared its concern for Indian workers in that country and has now suspended the issuance of emigration clearances to ex-servicemen for Iraq and the neighboring countries of Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to prevent such clearances from being misued to enter Iraq. The move followed reports that Indian ex-servicemen are being recruited by private agents to work on static watch and ward duties. On the trial of the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, he said national and international law should be allowed to take its course and noted that the trial judge that is trying his case was appointed during Saddam`s regime. Earlier, in starting the debate, Nair charged that the US had hoisted a "puppet regime" under a person who was associated with the Central Intelligence Agency. He likened the torture of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Gharib jail to those killed in Hitler`s gas chambers. He warned of the dangers of a new order with the US trying to evolve a unipolar world. 2160/2321/1432
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