IP: Russian Concerns

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 10:03:07 -0400
> From: "Gerald Ballman" <ballman () usna edu>
> To: "Gerald Ballman" <ballman () usna edu>
>
>
> Pak nukes may fall in hands of Taliban, fear Russian experts
>
>
>                 PTI
>                 (Moscow, October 9)
>
>                 As US-led military strikes on Afghanistan gain momentum, 
> Russian security experts
>                 have expressed concern over the possibility of Pakistani 
> nuclear arms falling into
>                 the hands of the Taliban militia.
>
>                 Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov is reported to 
> have raised this issue at
>                 recent NATO plus Russia meet in Brussels and last week at 
> several levels in
>                 Washington the consequences of the US strike on the fate 
> of Pakistani nuclear
>                 arsenals were also discussed.
>
>                 "On Friday President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman 
> declared the issue of safety of
>                 nuclear weapons is purely the problem of Pakistan and no 
> body has the right to
>                 decide it. Frankly speaking, it would be too late to 
> solve this problem, when it would
>                 cease to be purely a Pakistani problem," pro-Kremlin 
> Vremya Novostyei daily wrote.
>
>                 Though proper safeguards are in place to protect the 
> nuclear arsenals, the daily
>                 said it hoped that "in case of a civil war the western 
> educated pampered Pakistani
>                 army brass, would follow the South African scenario, 
> where the military dismantled
>                 country's six nuclear bombs before the transfer of power 
> to the black majority".
>
>                 Former deputy chief of the Russian general staff General 
> Leonid Ivashov said that
>                 "Pakistan is today on a slippery path which would lead to 
> either an extremist coup
>                 or a bloody military dictatorship, "
>
>                 "It could sound paradoxical, but unable to withstand 
> hi-tech smart weapons the
>                 Taliban may declare a jihad against the government of 
> Pakistan - the weakest ally
>                 of Washington's anti-terrorism coalition," Itar-Tass said 
> quoting unnamed 'highly
>                 placed' Russian military experts.
>
>                 By igniting a fire of jihad in Pakistan, Taliban could 
> turn their threat of mobilising
>                 the whole Muslim world for jihad into a reality, the 
> experts said.
>
>                 The facts that the Afghan-Pakistan frontier is not 
> properly guarded, both sides of
>                 the border are inhabited by well-armed pro-Taliban 
> Pushtun tribes which are
>                 generally hostile to official Islamabad, speak in favour 
> of the scenario when the fire
>                 of war could spread in to the territory of Pakistan, they 
> said.
>
>                 The expert said, "Most of the population of Pakistan 
> sympathises with the Taliban
>                 and anti-American sentiments are high in the country. 
> Besides this about 20 per
>                 cent Taliban militia consists of fanatic Pakistani 
> volunteers, ready to turn their guns
>                 at their own government."


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