June 6, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

MELBOURNE, June 5: Peace groups, environment groups, parliamentarians, and church groups have written to Australia’s minister for foreign affairs Alexander Downer and to the prime minister, urging the government to make the ongoing India-Pakistan crisis its topmost diplomatic priority.

A letter to the government was faxed on Wednesday and Tuesday, signed by organizations that included the general assembly of the Uniting Church, Pax Christi, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, the Australian Conservation Foundation, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australian Peace Committee, and Friends of the Earth, Australia.

Spokespersons for the groups said: “It is extraordinary and reprehensible that the possibility of nuclear war between India and Pakistan has not received far more public attention than it has. The possibility of nuclear war between two of Australia’s neighbours and fellow Commonwealth members with the potential for millions of casualties surely has to rate as worthy of front-page coverage, which it has never received here.

“We are sure that the government views the India-Pakistan crisis as of the gravest importance, and we are aware that some action has already been taken. What we hope to do by this letter is to support the steps already taken, and to urge the government to put this matter at the very top of its agenda and urge it to do more to prevent what, should the worst take place, would be a catastrophe for the entire region.

“We point out that should there actually be a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, one of the results of that will be a refugee exodus that will dwarf anything we have seen so far.

“Let us hope and pray that events in the subcontinent lead to a peaceful and just solution to the Kashmir issue and not to a nuclear war.

“ We urge you to follow a two-track approach based on the following:

1) The prevention of war, conventional or nuclear, in the Sub-continent.

2) Contingency planning for a ‘worst scenario’ outcome, should that eventuate.

“Should a large-scale conventional war break out between India and Pakistan, there are as we are sure you know, a number of ways in which it could escalate into a nuclear exchange, particularly if one of the parties were hard-pressed or felt that its very existence was under threat. Even the use of a single Hiroshima-sized warhead would result in approximately 850,000 casualties. Given that Pakistan has roughly 25-50 warheads at its disposal and that India has 60-100 or possibly 150, the likelihood of even one being used is too great. This would be an unparalleled human catastrophe.

“Australia would immediately be asked to offer permanent refuge to very large numbers indeed of displaced people whose places of residence had literally ceased to exist. We are of the strong view that Australia’s response to this eventuality should be a generous one.

“Australia would also be immediately asked to offer assistance in reconstituting the shattered societies of both nations. Again, we believe that our response should be extremely generous.

“It is our heartfelt hope that all this will never be necessary because war will be prevented. We should then play a role in bringing about a just and peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem, (for example via a referendum or referenda on Kashmir’s future) and persuade both India and Pakistan that their possession of nuclear weapons has made both of them less, not more, secure.’’