Jack Straw Announces Plans to Visit India and Pakistan

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Jack Straw Announces Plans to Visit India and Pakistan

Iraqi Opposition Party Condemns US Plans as Open Interference

Robeson 1952 Border Concert Remembered

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has announced that he plans to visit India and Pakistan next week following mounting tension in Kashmir and throughout the region.

The Foreign Secretary stated "the possibility of war between India and Pakistan is real – and very disturbing", and he added "the international community is watching events with mounting concern". Jack Straw’s visit follows those of representatives of the US government. Both the US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, and the EU Commissioner for External Affairs, Chris Patten, are also due to visit the region.

India and Pakistan are reported to have over one million troops massed along the "line of control" in Kashmir and the common border between the two countries and both regularly shell each others military positions, causing death and destruction to the civilian population. According to Jack Straw, Britain "has long seen itself as a good friend of both India and Pakistan", a view that conveniently ignores the legacy of British colonial rule in the region, including Kashmir, and the continued interference of Britain, the US and the other big powers throughout South Asia. This interference is also being carried out once again under the signboard of the "war against terrorism".

Jack Straw’s asserts that the British government is all for "a lowering of tension and then dialogue" in the region and that he will be engaged in some kind of peace mission. But the fact is that the interference of Britain, the US and others has done nothing to ease tension in this important strategic region that, amongst other things, has provided a lucrative market for the major arms manufacturers. Earlier this year, when Tony Blair visited India and Pakistan and spoke of Britain’s "calming influence", it was reported that his visit was part of a major government campaign to boost arms sales worth £1 billion from the British arms monopoly BAe Systems to the Indian government. Britain, the US and the other big powers have continued to play a major role encouraging arms sales in the region. Only last month it was reported that India had signed its first arms deal with the US in more than forty years, when it agreed to buy eight Raytheon radar systems, said to cost around $146 million. Over the last two years, while the situation in Kashmir and throughout the regions has worsened, the British government has licensed arm sales worth £122 million to India and £17.5 million to Pakistan. Between 1993 and 2000 it is reported that India and Pakistan have spent over £13 billion on arms.

The pious words of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and other government ministers can thus be seen to be merely a smoke-screen to hide the predatory activities of the big monopolies and their continued contention throughout South Asia. The interference of the big powers on behalf of monopolies, their increasing rivalry for markets and strategic advantage and the ceaseless military build-up, is threatening to plunge the whole region into a catastrophic conflict. What must be demanded is that Britain and the other big powers get out of South Asia.

The London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 20 May writes that the Iraqi Shi'i Islamic Al-Da'wah Party has declared its rejection of the US plans to overthrow President Saddam Hussein's regime and replace it by another one in Iraq.

In a statement, a copy of which was received by Al-Sharq al-Awsat on Sunday, the party's political office says: "Regarding the reports carried by some news media that diplomatic sources have said that the US administration is planning to establish 'a federal democratic republic' in Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime consisting of three separate entities run by local elected representative councils within a unified Iraq ruled by a central federal government in Baghdad, the party considers Washington's plans an open interference in an issue that does not concern it. We do not believe that the United States or anyone else has the right to exercise hegemony or interference in the affairs of sovereign states under any excuse whatsoever. Indeed, this interference might give it the power to influence and dominate states militarily, politically, and economically, but it does not give it the legality or acceptance at any level."

The party says, "The affairs of the Iraqi regime concern the Iraqi people. We will not accept any action or measure that humiliates or forfeits the will of the Iraqi people and their strong challenging forces."

CBC News Online reported that on May 18 the sounds of a choir soared above the Canada-US border to pay tribute to a social activist with one of the most distinctive voices ever recorded. Exactly 50 years ago, American singer and actor Paul Robeson performed on the same spot between the Canadian Province of BC and Washington state – known as Peace Arch Park.

He had been invited to Canada to take part in labour rally in Vancouver on May 18, 1952. But officials refused to let Robeson cross the border. Branded a left-wing radical for his strong views about equality, the US government had banned him from performing and revoked his passport. Refusing to be silenced, however, Robeson rolled up on a flat-bed truck and started singing about civil rights, freedom and social justice to the delight of about 40,000 fans.

"It was a glorious day. And we knew that a lot of people would come, but we didn't anticipate how many," recalled Sylvia Friedman at this year's anniversary tribute, dubbed Here We Stand. "You had to hear him sing and hear him speak," she said. "He spoke with such dignity." US actor Danny Glover came to the border Saturday to praise an often-unsung black hero in American history. "Paul Robeson was a man who knew that his voice mattered – in terms of working on behalf of humanity, and on behalf of ordinary people," Glover said.