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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3578)	5/14/1998 12:50:00 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

"Who is Chief H....?" Maurice, the citizen of the world and Resident of Mangere will know as is his deterministic style. Perhaps he's off leasing some fine French Rhone river bottom land to use for NZ's secret underground testing site.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3578)	5/14/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Nuclear reactions: First heard from Pakistan (hope you or your family doesn't hold property downwind of Chagai Hills: The following is reprinted here for personal use only: Pakistan may test bomb in days Thu, 14 May 1998 5:32:00 PDT Story from Reuters Copyright 1998 by Reuters (via ClariNet) NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pakistan is preparing for an underground nuclear test that could take place as early as Sunday, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The paper quoted American diplomatic, intelligence and military officials as saying Pakistan could test a nuclear warhead sometime next week at a desert site in response to five tests that rival India has conducted since Monday. The newspaper said the officials cited clear signs from spy satellites, foreign agents and Pakistan's political leaders. "No one expects them not to have a test," the Times said, citing an unidentified Clinton administration official. The newspaper said American officials believe the Pakistani test would be conducted in the Chagai Hills, a remote site in the Baluchistan desert near Pakistan's western border with Iran. One of the warheads would be lowered down a deep shaft and exploded. American spy satellites have detected military equipment and technical personnel preparing for a test at the Chagai Hills site, the Times said. Foreign intelligence agents in Pakistan have reported that the test could be conducted immediately, for maximum political effect, or later next week for a greater yield of technological data, officials told the Times. The United States Wednesday tried to persuade Pakistan not to follow India in conducting a nuclear test. President Clinton called Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and sent a senior mission to Islamabad. U.S. officials seriously doubt that Islamabad -- which like India is believed to have the capability to assemble a nuclear weapon quickly if necessary -- can be dissuaded. In his telephone call, Clinton asked Sharif ''to resist the temptation to respond to an irresponsible act,'' said Karl Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, according to the Times. ''Sharif was not able to give that reassurance. He told the president that he was under tremendous pressure to respond,'' the Times quoted Inderfurth as saying. Pakistan is regarded as a threshold nuclear power that has not yet exploded a nuclear device. American officials told the Times that Pakistan has been capable of conducting a nuclear test since the early 1990s. The Times said Pakistan has enough fissile material to produce about a dozen warheads. The warheads, based on Chinese design, could be mounted on missiles. If Pakistan conducted a test, it would face the same sanctions the United States has imposed on India including a ban on private American loans and the loss of military and economic aid. Next from the Peace Loving Peoples of Japan: Japan considering freezing massive development aid for India Wed, 13 May 1998 11:25:21 PDT Story from AFP Copyright 1998 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) TOKYO, May 13 (AFP) - Japan was stung into considering freezing massive development aid to India in response to its second round of nuclear tests on Wednesday, a few hours after halting its grants. Jiji Press reported the government was close to a decision on freezing Japan's low-interest yen loans to India's infrastructural projects, which totalled some 133 billion yen (one billion dollars) last year. Following news of two more tests on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said he had instructed his ministries to "promptly study what kind of countermeasure can be possible." Jiji said extra sanctions, possibly including the recall of the Japanese ambassador in India and a halt to exchanges of high-level officials, were to be announced on Thursday. The premier had earlier made a suble threat by saying Japan, India's largest aid donor, would decide about yen loans to New Delhi after "examining how India deals with the issue from now on." Japan accounts for 47 percent of external economic aid to India. In protest at three underground tests on Monday, Hashimoto announced Japan would suspend grant aid to India, which totalled 3.5 billion yen last year, and shelve a plan to host a World Bank forum of donor nations for New Delhi. Emergency and humanitarian aid will be exempted from the ban. Asked about the possibility of a freeze on yen-loans, he said: "There are not only yen loans. There are various options." Hashimoto said the issue would figure at the summit of the Group of Eight major industrialised powers in Birmingham at the weekend. "I will promptly check every possible option as I am due to depart for the summit tomorrow (Thursday) evening," he said. "It is a question which will invite debate in various ways." It would be the first time Japan, the world's only nation to be attacked with atomic weapons, would suspend yen loans to a country in retaliation for nuclear testing. Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi summoned Indian Ambassador here Siddharth Singh for the second time in as many days, Japanese officials said. "It is extremely regrettable that, in spite of denunciations from our country and the international community against the first round of nuclear testing, India has repeated it," Obuchi was quoted as telling the envoy. The ambassador repeated India's claims the series of nuclear tests was completed and it had not contravened any international treaty, the officials said. Earlier Hashimoto's ruling party urged the government to take "measures including a partial freeze of yen loans." India's underground nuclear testing "disturbed the feelings of people in Japan, the only country in the world that has suffered atomic bombing," the Liberal Democratic Party said in a statement. Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said Japan took "seriously" the second round of testing. "We have no choice but consider additional measures," he told a midnight news conference. "Japan reiterates its demand that India stop nuclear testing immediately and sign the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) at an early stage," he said in an earlier statement. "Japan is also determined to maintain its strict control on transfers of items and technologies related to weapons of mass-destruction to India," Muraoka said. In the past, Tokyo has used its huge economic might to protest against nuclear testing. In May 1995 Tokyo froze grant aid, part of its Official Development Assistance, to China for two years after Beijing held a series of nuclear tests.