Subject: Fw: hey Ali
Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 19:14:23 +0100


---- Original Message -----
From: "Ali Kazmi" <thekazmis2001-AT-yahoo.com>
To: "ninetyone andy" <andy_91_2000-AT-yahoo.co.uk>; "Old Goat"
<olgoat-AT-nebi.com>; "anarchy-list" <anarchy-list-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: hey Ali


Hi all,

Sorry I haven't checked my mail lately. Been busy
digging a fallout shelter in the lawn. and stocking up
on food and stuff. Thinking of putting in an extra
water tank, etc. etc. Useless gestures really.

Aw hey, andy, you can get on the next flight to scotland and hide over here
if you want, refugees welcome on my beach
H
forwarded from those guys you gotta love.......

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S YER BIT OF NUKIE

SchNEWS

KASHMIR SWEATER

"24,000 people, mostly children, die from poverty every day. This is the
true terrorism and it is aided and abetted by politicians from rich,
privileged and powerful countries who, in the cause of profit and
reigning respectability, are salesman of death." - John Pilger.

We're sorry dear SchNEWS readers to interrupt your enjoyment of the
World Cup and the right royal knees-up, and we know that for most of us
it's a very long way away, but it looks like, a nuclear war could be
just around the corner.

With a million battle-ready soldiers facing off against each other on
the India-Pakistan border and nuclear warheads at the ready; India is
talking of a "decisive victory" whilst Pakistan rattles its nuclear
sabre by carrying out missile tests as the rest of the world looks on,
strangely powerless. Neither Pakistan or India seems to care that a
nuclear war could see 12 million dead and 7 million wounded in the space
of a single hour - an instant slaughter unprecedented in the history of
mankind.

Still, we in England can be proud of the role we have played. No, not by
the last minute diplomatic visits by the Foreign Secretary but by our
generous arms dealings. In 2000 the Government approved nearly 700
export licenses to India and Pakistan, showing how we haven't lost our
sense of fair play by flogging weapons and military equipment to both
countries. Is this what Neo-Labour meant when they talked about an
'ethical foreign policy' when they first came to power?

Hawking Jets

In January, as the two countries prepared for war, a 'Presidential'
Blair arrived in the subcontinent on what was called a "peace mission" -
which coincided with the UK flogging 60 Hawk jets to India for a billion
pounds - some peace there. Three weeks later, the British High
Commission in New Delhi threw a party at an arms fair for a group of
arms salesman licking their lips at the Afghanistan and Kashmir crisis.
In fact so keen has the Blair government been to exploit this
opportunity of war that a British official has the full time assignment
in New Delhi of "defence supply."

As for our Foreign Secretary calling on the two countries for restraint,
Defence Minister Geoff Hoon showed good old British reserve (or
hypocrisy) when he recently told the Defence Select Committee "There are
clearly some states who would be deterred by the fact that the United
Kingdom possesses nuclear weapons and has the willingness and ability to
use them in appropriate circumstances... They can be absolutely confident
that in the right conditions we would be willing to use our nuclear
weapons". Which makes all of us at SchNEWS Towers sleep a lot more
soundly at night.

So even if our boys don't bring back the World Cup, we can at least all
be proud of the fact that this country is still up with the best in the
world (second behind the good old US of A) when it comes to selling
weapons to anyone who wants them, especially if they are on the brink of
war.

20th Century Kashmir

"The leaders of India and Pakistan have now appropriated to themselves,
as others had done before, the power that was God's alone to kill
mountains, make the earth quake, bring the sea to boil, and destroy
humanity." - Eqbal Ahmad, political activist and writer.
As the British Empire crumbled British forces withdrew from the Indian
subcontinent, leaving a country divided, primarily on religious grounds,
into India and Pakistan. At that time Kashmir was said to be part of
India, but this has been contested ever since. The major stumbling block
has been religious, as Kashmir's population is predominantly Muslim,
which sets it apart form the Indian population which is predominantly
Hindi.

In 1947 a United Nations resolution called for a referendum in Kashmir,
but it was never carried out, the probable reason being that the Indian
government feared the population would support Kashmir's unification
with Pakistan.

This lack of any decision over Kashmir's sovereignty has made it the
obvious place for Pakistan and India to play out their differences, with
Kashmir becoming a part religious part political football cum time bomb.

Over the last 11 years around 30,000 people have died in the Kashmir
conflict and what happens there is at the heart of the continuing
tension between the two nations. Since the attack on the Indian
Parliament building in December 2001, this tension has grown
considerably with India accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorist
groups; while Pakistan, in turn, pledges its support for Kashmiri
freedom fighters, proving that one state's terrorist is another's
freedom fighter. There have been three India/Pakistan wars since 1947,
the difference this time round is that both sides have nuclear weapons.

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