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Close US eye on N-activity in South
Asia
By Nadeem Malik
ISLAMABAD - Sensors, alarms, radiation detectors
and closed-circuit cameras are a part of the operations
that the United States will launch in India and Pakistan
to strengthen their nuclear security apparatus.
In its budget requests for financial year 2004,
the US administration requested funding for two separate
programs, the Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining
and Related Programs (NADR) and the Export Control and
Related Border Security Assistance (EXBS) program. These
are aimed at ensuring that sensitive nuclear and missile
technologies do not fall into the hands of extremists in
the event of political upheaval or due to the presence
of the sympathizers of hardliners within the security
apparatus. The US budget for financial year 2003
included about US$10 million to support these programs
in South Asia.
The issue of nuclear security is
of primary importance for the US, and many US officials
had repeatedly expressed their apprehensions about the
nuclear weapons capabilities of India and Pakistan. "If
al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the forces inside Pakistan were
to pull a coup and take over the government of Pakistan,
I think we would be forced to react militarily
immediately," said one speaker in the House on June 19.
He observed that the US would be forced into a situation
that would be dangerous for a long time should "the bomb
[fall[ into the hands of terrorists".
The US
Defense Authorization Bill for the fiscal year 2004 also
incorporates a plan for "the assessment of strategies or
options for dealing with nuclear capable nations that
may provide nuclear weapons to terrorist or
transnational groups, and an assessment of the effect of
the strategy on the nuclear programs of emerging nuclear
weapons states, including North Korea, Iran, Pakistan
and India."
As part of this strategy, the US
administration had started a program to assist India and
Pakistan in strengthening export control systems. The
EXBS program organizes expert-level exchanges addressing
subjects such as legal/regulatory reform, licensing
automation, and customs enforcement. The EXBS program
also provides technical equipment and training, such as
specialized radiation-detection and imaging machines and
more general inspection/detection training for border
control personnel.
Officials in South Asia have
been reluctant to say much on the subject, as the
political backlash of such a development could be huge -
the general perception of a suspicious US monitoring the
countries' nuclear activity could hand a new weapon to
religious groups, both in India and Pakistan.
The officials say that the EXBS is meant to
prevent the transfer of sensitive goods to end-users of
proliferation concern. The program, in close
coordination with the US Department of Defense, provides
equipment, technical assistance and training to enhance
investigative capabilities. At present, over 20 US
experts are working in various countries with foreign
officials on ways to strengthen controls, and in
directing training activities and the delivery of
much-needed detection and enforcement equipment.
Recently, a senior US administration official
claimed that an EXBS program operation had seized
sensitive goods or weapon components bound for
terrorists, state sponsors of terror and other
proliferate entities in unnamed countries.
Several US experts are working on the EXBS
program in Central Asian Countries. After September 11,
the US launched a focused drive in this strategic
region, and in the Caucasus as well, to shore up
vulnerable borders and improve capabilities to deter,
detect and interdict the transit of illicit goods and
weapons, said John Wolf, US Assistant Secretary at the
Bureau of Nonproliferation.
In Europe, he said,
export control assistance was increased to the Baltics
and Southeastern Europe and Mediterranean transshipment
points, such as Malta and Cyprus. "All states,
especially those with large ports, must do their part to
forestall the transit and transshipment of dangerous
materials and technology."
Given the global
nature of the proliferation threat, the EXBS program had
expanded its focus to include countries along key
transit routes and countries with a substantial volume
of transshipment trade in the Middle East and Southeast
Asia. "In potential South Asia supplier countries, we
continue to encourage the development, full
implementation and enforcement of export controls that
meet international standards," Wolf said before the
House International Relations Committee.
As part
of this global drive, the US government has established
the International Geodynamics Research Center in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, which is capable of verifying and
detecting nuclear and seismic activities in nearby
India, Pakistan and China.
Wolf said that he was
hopeful that the focus on securing sensitive
technologies, particularly in South Asia, where an
active nonproliferation dialogue with Pakistan and India
was underway, would yield results.
(Copyright
2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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