World Tibet Network News Monday, June 8th, 1998

By Scott Hillis

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Friday hit out at India's defense minister, accusing him of recklessly using Beijing as an excuse for New Delhi's nuclear tests and warning of the terrible consequences of such words.

The Liberation Army Daily took aim at Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes over his comments last month citing the threat from China as justification for India's five nuclear tests that rekindled fears of an arms race in South Asia.

``If this arrogant bluster and military expansionism is not effectively checked, the consequences will not even bear thinking about,'' said the mouthpiece of China's three million-strong People's Liberation Army.

``As a figure with a disreputable name who holds strong ideas of big-India chauvinism, Fernandes has consistently and publicly advocated great-nation chauvinism and continuously upheld an anti-China stance,'' the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Fernandes had slandered China by saying that Beijing had helped Myanmar install surveillance equipment on some islands in the Bay of Bengal.

China's Foreign Ministry slammed Fernandes' allegations as groundless.

``India's defense minister has time and again attacked China for no reason over this problem, seeking an excuse for the nuclear tests and military build-up,'' a ministry spokesman said by telephone.

The newspaper also blasted him for saying that China had snatched land from India and for his support of Tibetan independence and the region's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

``Today, he is only vilifying China as occupying Indian soil, but what will he do next?'' it asked.

``These kind of words that recklessly disrupt Sino-Indian ties have of course met with strong resistance from the Chinese people and have drawn a chorus of rebuke from all circles in India,'' it said.

China and India fought a brief border war in 1962, and claims over disputed territory have not been entirely settled. Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and Beijing says it has historically ruled the Himalayan region.

The newspaper dismissed those who said Fernandes' words did not speak for the entire Indian government, asking: ``The question is, as defense minister, won't he try his hardest to put his views into effect?.''

Relations between Beijing and New Delhi had been improving before Fernandes and the nuclear tests brought an abrupt halt to the warming ties.