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The Future Wellstone Deserves
June 3, 2002
Ramdas / Makhijani
India,
Pakistan and Nukes:
A Road Map to Peace
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Meanwhile, Back in Afghanistan
Neve Gordon
The Caterpillar
Effect
June 2, 2002
Fidel Castro
From FDR to Mister "W.":
Cuba, the US and Democracy
Arundhati Roy
Under the
Nuclear Shadow
Bernard Weiner
Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies
June 1, 2002
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The
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Gavin Keeney
Bush and Mies van der Rohe:
Architecture and Ideology
Jeff Halper
Sharon's
Post-Incursion Plan:
Incarceration or Transfer?
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Crumpling the Constitution
May 31, 2002
Rev. Sandra Olewine
Land Grabs and Occupation:
Silent Destruction of Palestine
James Dunlop
Russian
Colonel:
"Insane But Fit for Duty"
Chomsky / Bennett
Debating "Terrorism"
May 30, 2002
Steve Perry
Jim Carrey:
"Love Me!"
Tom Turnipseed
Sex Among the Sacred
George Monbiot
Corporate
Phantoms
Web of Deciet over GM Foods
Robert Jensen
Are You a Journalist
or a Patriot?
Gary Leupp
Georgia
and the War on Terror
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June
4, 2002
Kashmir:
Invoking
International Law
to Avoid Nuclear War
by William M. Evan
and Francis A. Boyle
The military confrontation between India and Pakistan,
two nuclear-armed neighbors, has the world in a state of jitters.
With each country mobilizing its forces--together totaling about
a million troops along their 1800 mile border--there is a high
probability that the current face-off may lead to the outbreak
of yet another war between these two countries. Although such
a war--if it eventuates--is likely to involve a conventional
exchange of weapons as happened in the 1947, 1965, and  1972 wars, there
is reason to fear that it could escalate into a nuclear war.
If such a catastrophe were to occur, American intelligence estimates
that about 12 million people would be killed and 7 million would
be injured.
What has been the response of the international
community to this crisis? President Bush has urged President
Musharraf of Pakistan and Prime Minister Vajpayee of India to
exercise restraint and stop cross-border attacks. President Jacques
Chirac, President Vladimir Putin and other European officials
have echoed similar sentiments.
In the meantime, Mr. Vajpayee accuses
Pakistan of waging a 20-year campaign of terrorism to dislodge
India from the predominantly Muslim state of Kashmir. He also
rejects Pakistan's repeated requests for dialogue or negotiation.
And the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterates his requests
to General Musharraf to crack down on Islamic militants penetrating
the Line of Control separating the Pakistani sector of Kashmir
from the Indian sector.
Forty-three years ago the U.N. put forth
a potentially reasonable solution to the conflict by conducting
a plebiscite on the status of Kashmir--whether it should remain
part of India, or become part of Pakistan. These two options
could be supplemented by (1)outright independence for Kashmir;
or (2) shared sovereignty between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Thus far India has dismissed the idea of holding such a plebiscite.
Clearly missing from all responses so
far to the looming nuclear crisis is an argument for using international
law to resolve the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir. This
striking omission underscores, on the one hand, the widespread
commitment to power politics and the use of war as a means of
resolving international disputes and, on the other hand, a fundamental
distrust of international law to resolve international conflicts.
As it happens, both India and Pakistan
are parties to the 1899 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement
of International Disputes. The United States is also a party
to this 1899 Convention. Article 8 is the brainchild of the United
States. It establishes a procedure for special mediation. The
states in conflict would each choose a power to which they would
respectively entrust the mission of entering into direct communication
with the power chosen by the other side for the purpose of preventing
the rupture of pacific relations. For the period of this mandate,
which could not exceed thirty days, unless otherwise agreed,
the states in conflict would cease all direct communication on
the subject of the dispute, leaving it exclusively to the mediating
powers. In case of a definite rupture of pacific relations, the
mediating powers were charged with the joint task of taking advantage
of any opportunity for peace.
The threat of nuclear war between India
and Pakistan directly affects the vital national security interests
of the United States: The nuclear fallout would poison America
and its people as well as the peoples of other countries. So
the U.S. government, joined by others, must formally and publicly
invoke Hague Article 8 against both India and Pakistan, and demand
the required 30-day cooling-off period so that this special mediation
procedure could take place.
The U.S. government joined by others
must also invoke the requirement of Article 33(1) of the United
Nations Charter providing that the two parties to the dispute
over Kashmir "shall first of all, seek a solution by negotiation,
inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement,
resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful
means of their own choice." U.N. Charter Article 33 expressly
by name requires the pursuit of the "mediation" procedure
set forth in Hague Article 8, including the mandatory 30-day
cooling off period.
Time is of the essence when it comes
to invoking Hague Article 8 and averting a nuclear war!
Williams M. Evan,
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Management at the University
of Pennsylvania, is the author of several books, the most recent
of which (with Mark Manion) is Minding
the Machines: Preventing Technological Disasters, published
by Prentice Hall.
Francis A. Boyle,
Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of Foundations
of World Order, Duke University Press, and The
Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, Clarity Press. He
can be reached at: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU
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