The Hindu : Eminent Indians protest U.S. stance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

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Eminent Indians protest U.S. stance

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi Feb. 15. Five of India's most eminent men today joined the global civil society in raising a collective voice against the American insistence on war on Iraq. Deploring the casual manner in which the war option is being talked about, they recalled the UNESCO constitution, which reads: "Wars begin in the minds of men and it is in the minds of men (and women) that the defences of peace must be constructed."

The former president, K. R. Narayanan, the former Prime Minister, I. K. Gujral, and three eminent lawyers and jurists — Fali S. Nariman, A. H. Desai and K. K. Venugopal — in a signed statement have warned against unilateral action and instead have demanded that every power should repose faith in the United Nations system.

"People who guide the destinies of the world must work together to preserve the peace: by helping to formulate and to actively propagate all steps that would avoid a war. How that is best achieved must be left to the collective wisdom of the majority of the members of the U.N. Security Council, and not to anyone of them, howsoever powerful," reads the statement.

The five also answer the U.S. Secretary of State, who had asked: "How much longer are we to wait." The answer, they say, "so long as it is necessary to keep the world out of a full-scale war."

They further argue: "If world leaders keep thinking and talking only about war, then war will be inevitable — with disastrous consequences for the people of the world. Lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children will be lost and hundreds of thousands more will be rendered homeless."

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