The Hindu : National : India not aware of U.S. plans to sanction three more entities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 24, 2004

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National

India not aware of U.S. plans to sanction three more entities

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, OCT. 23 . New Delhi said today that it was unaware of American plans to "sanction" three more Indian entities after the Reuters news agency, quoting a senior U.S. official, reported on Friday that three Indian entities were to be sanctioned.

"If there had been any such plans [to sanction more Indian entities], then the NSSP [Next Steps in Strategic Partnership] forum would have been the appropriate forum to discuss these cases," the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said in a response today.

Already, the United States had sanctioned two former Indian nuclear scientists, Y.S.R. Prasad and C. Surendar, on September 29 for "transfer of equipment and technology controlled under multilateral export control lists or otherwise having the potential to make a material contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction [WMD] or ballistic missile systems."

"We have seen these [Friday's] press reports. With the launch of the NSSP, we now have a forum for discussions on such issues between the two countries and it is in this forum that all cases of onward proliferation can be brought up by one country or the other," the spokesman said.

`Faulty evidence'

Referring to Thursday's talks between the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, and the Joint Secretary (Americas), S. Jaishankar, he remarked, "In the recently-concluded meeting of the NSSP implementation group, there was no demand made on the Indian side for evidence in regard to the two entities [Dr. Prasad and Mr. Surendar] sanctioned by the U.S."

"In fact, the burden of action is on the U.S. as we have already pointed out to them that the decision in regard to these entities is based on faulty evidence and must be revoked," he added.

In a related development, Ministry sources told this correspondent that India did not view the NSSP as a "one-way street."

This forum was for both countries, and India, too, could raise concerns about "onward proliferation" by countries such as North Korea and Pakistan.

On October 1, India had asked the United States to review and withdraw the sanctions against Dr. Prasad and Mr. Surendar who had worked as chiefs of the Nuclear Power Corporation. The Ministry spokesman pointed out that Mr. Surendar, for instance, had never visited Iran while Dr. Prasad had done some consultancy for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Even Dr. Prasad had not visited Iran since mid-2003.

Duelfer report

Separately, the U.S. chief arms weapons inspector for Iraq, Charles Duelfer, in a report submitted to the Senate, had claimed that several companies, including those from India, were engaging in "possible WMD-related trade with Iraq."

The Duelfer report, which had concluded that Iraq had no WMD programme at the time the U.S. invaded that country, also said that the Indian Government had no knowledge of activities by these Indian companies.

Apart from NEC Engineering, the name of another Indian company, United Commodities, is mentioned in the Duelfer report. Iraq, the report alleged, had used Indian front companies for its dealings with South Korea and China.

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