Dragonfire (20 page)

‘We will stop only when we have achieved the security of our borders.’

‘While you are violating ours. Hari, listen to me. For the sake of God, listen. If you were a military man you would understand what is happening. Pakistan cannot respond to Indian
airstrikes by sending up its air force. We have four hundred combat aircraft. You have twelve hundred. We would end up being slaughtered. Pakistan has two deterrents against Indian aggression.
Insurgency – or terrorism, as you call it – and the nuclear option. The former has kept us enemies for more than half a century. The latter would destroy us both in half a day.
We’re unlucky in that we don’t rule a country like Switzerland, whose citizens are more happy with peace than with war. Our people are warriors. It needs extra-special skills for us to
guide it through, Hari. Real imagination.’

‘General, that is a very nice speech. But if you are genuine, why are you picking a fight?’

‘I am lancing a boil, Prime Minister, like NATO lanced a boil in the Balkans by bombing Serbia. They caused many more casualties than if it had been left to fester. But the problem was
exposed so that it could be solved.’

‘All right, General. You have one shot. Give me your solution.’

‘You set up your buffer between Tithwal and Marol along the northern sector of the LoC and I will not fight back. You will have secured the most militarized sector. I can’t let you
do it along the western flank because it brings you too close to Islamabad. All hostilities cease. Prisoners are sent back. The dead returned. We then make a joint announcement on a referendum for
Kashmir – a referendum which
will
take place. Once details are drawn up, I will do everything in my power to bring back the mujahedin. We have control, as you know, but it’s not
total.’

‘The UN resolution stipulates that Pakistani forces must be withdrawn from the disputed territory before any referendum takes place,’ said Dixit, jotting down the points Khan had
made.

‘If you don’t want me to internationalize this issue, let’s forget about a defunct UN resolution passed by the very same men who allowed this bloody partition to take
place.’

‘I’ll get back to you.’

‘And the invasion continues?’

‘Yes.’

Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi

Local time: 1000 Saturday 5 May 2007
GMT: 0430 Saturday 5 May 2007

‘Thank you for
making the time, President Tao,’ said Dixit. ‘I am sure you agree that if we talk personally we might be able to see a way through the
fog.’ Interpreters were on the line. Tao insisted that his Foreign Minister, Jamie Song, join in the conversation, so Prabhu Purie was called in as well.

‘I don’t see any fog,’ said Tao abruptly. ‘Your government has maintained a force of anti-Chinese Tibetan guerrillas who have now invaded Chinese territory. You give
sanctuary to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is fomenting disturbances leading to deaths and injuries among Chinese citizens. The Dalai Lama has stayed outside China since
the failed rebellion of March 1959 by a small number of splittists of the Tibetan upper class. Since then he has gone further and further down the road of dividing the Motherland. He preaches about
his aim of turning the Tibetan Plateau into a holy land filled with peace and non-violence, where people can live in harmony and nature – yet he sends terrorists to Tibet to blow up buildings
and kill innocent people.’

Tao was speaking simultaneously with his interpreter who was so efficient in the translation that she must have been working from a prepared text. On a signal from Purie, Dixit let the Chinese
President continue.

‘The facts of the Tibetan issue are as follows. Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama was still in the feudal age with its aristocracy holding absolute power. The democratic reforms in
Tibet in 1959 put an end once and for all to the barbarous and backward serfdom. Life expectancy for Tibetans has increased substantially from thirty-six, before 1959, to sixty-eight today. In
India, your official statistics show that life expectancy is only sixty-three years. Ninety per cent of the population was illiterate or semi-literate. Now 73.5 per cent of Tibetan children of
school age have access to an education. In your country only 52 per cent of the young people can read and write. In old Tibet, there were only two small government-run clinics in Lhasa. The region
now has more than a thousand medical institutions, with 2.3 hospital beds and 2.1 doctors for every thousand people.’

‘I think I get your point, President Tao.’

‘The Dalai Lama did not construct one single road. We have built a road network of more than twenty thousand kilometres.’

‘I accept many of those things.’

‘It would be better if you waited for the President to finish,’ said Jamie Song, intervening in English.

‘In the past there were nearly a thousand families of beggars and poor people in areas around Lhasa,’ Tao was saying, ‘and it was also common to see prisoners in handcuffs,
shackles and on wooden trolleys begging along the streets. These scenes have been eradicated by the democratic reforms. The overwhelming majority of farmers and herders now have enough food and
clothing. Why, then, is India championing the cause of the splittist Tibetan aristocracy by providing them with men and weapons? What has India’s hero the Dalai Lama done for Tibet in all
these years? How has he improved the people’s living standard? India should know that Tibet is an integral part of China and the splittist Dalai Lama has given no thought to the fundamental
interests of the country. He has only tried to spread lies and stir up riots.’

After the interpreter finished the last sentence, no one spoke for a few seconds, until Dixit said: ‘We very much appreciate your view of the situation.’

It was Jamie Song who replied, in Chinese, with a different interpreter coming in: ‘President Tao has unfortunately had to go to an urgent meeting. He asked me to convey his deep regret
that you had to inexplicably cancel your visit to Beijing and would be very happy to receive you in the near future should you be able to find time to come.’

‘Thank you, Foreign Minister,’ said Dixit. ‘I will ask Mr Purie to be in touch with you about that. Meanwhile, as you know our bilateral dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir has
escalated this week. We would like your assurances that China will not side with Pakistan to escalate the crisis even more.’

‘Human rights are a global issue, Prime Minister. Some of the reports of civilian massacres are difficult to ignore.’

‘As are the pictures of your troops opening fire in Tibet, Jamie,’ added Purie.

‘For China, the Kashmir issue is a dispute between India and Pakistan,’ responded Song, ‘You must remember though that Pakistan is a very old friend of China. My government is
more concerned about the Tibetan issue. I am sure—’

‘Excuse me, Foreign Minister,’ said Dixit, impatiently, as Chandra Reddy burst into the room, slipping an urgent note onto his desk. Dixit quickly read it: ‘I’m sorry,
Foreign Minister, I have been told that Chinese aircraft and ground troops have invaded the Kingdom of Bhutan. The King of Bhutan has called on India for help.’

Briefing

Bhutan

The tiny Buddhist Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has deliberately made itself one of the world’s most isolated countries. A hereditary monarchy was established in 1907 and, with
a population of only six hundred thousand, the first king signed a treaty with Britain to safeguard the kingdom against attacks from China. In 1949, after its independence, India drew up a similar
replacement treaty. But it was not until 1963, in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian war, that the Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT) was established in Bhutan, with India supplying military
hardware, advisers and trainers for the Royal Bhutan Army. India regards Bhutan as a strategic buffer state. Any attack on it would have to be repelled to preserve the delicate balance of power in
South Asia.

China–Bhutan border

Local time: 1023 Saturday 5 May 2007
GMT: 0423 Saturday 5 May 2007

Choedrak and his
fighters sat against the mud-brick wall, silently savouring the moment of success. This was one of the greatest moments of the Tibetan struggle. This
was why so many of his men from the SFF had died. Togden was recovering with a mug of yak tea and the guards were cranking up the radio to try to get a helicopter in from the capital, Thimpu.
Around the hut there was the hum of conversation and the smell of a wood fire. For the final few kilometres, there had been firing behind them, single shots as the Chinese tried to start an
avalanche in the Monla Karchung pass. Two SFF men, rotting with frostbite, had volunteered to stay behind to stop them.

Choedrak only had five men left. It took four to carry Togden’s stretcher, and they stumbled along the valley of the Bumtang River until they spotted a spiral of smoke. When he explained
who they were and who they had with them, the Bhutanese guards embraced them with admiration and brought them into their hut. Word spread around the communities and villagers crammed in to look at
the man who was being hailed as one of the great Buddhist leaders of Tibet.

Choedrak dozed and lost track of time and when he heard the steady thud of rotor blades he thought it was the Bhutanese helicopter come to pick them up. He pushed himself up, getting his balance
against the wall, and gave an order to prepare the stretcher. Then a machine gun opened up. The bullets ripped through the hut as if it were paper.

Camp David, Maryland, USA

Local time: 2330 Friday 5 May 2007
GMT: 0430 Saturday 5 May 2007

‘You’ve got to
pick up the phone and talk to the Prime Minister, John,’ said Joan Holden, the Secretary of State. ‘Conflict between India and
China is a whole different ball game than between India and Pakistan.’

‘If I talk to Dixit, I have to talk to Tao.’

‘Then talk to them both. China has violated the sovereignty of Bhutan just in order to capture a Buddhist monk. It’s a ludicrous way of conducting foreign policy. Indian and Chinese
warplanes are having dogfights over Bhutan this morning. Nepal has already asked for international intervention. A Chinese squadron has crossed the border into Arunachal Pradesh and they’ve
buzzed the border guards in Sikkim. One Indian pilot chased a Chinese plane almost to Lhasa. The only government with any authority to intervene is the United States of America.’

‘On the side of India, or as a neutral party?’

‘Neutral,’ said Holden.

‘One minute,’ said Ennio Barber, a map of the Indian subcontinent spread out on his lap. On the coffee table by his side were the latest opinion-poll ratings on the Chinese crackdown
in Tibet. ‘The American people are already outraged after the massacre in Lhasa. The anti-China lobby in Congress is calling for sanctions, carrier groups and withdrawal of the Ambassador.
The works. I can’t see the President getting on the phone to Tao and Dixit saying, “America is friends of both countries.”’

‘But it’s true,’ said Holden.

‘Maybe. But he cannot call for India to stop its military action against China. Firstly, India is a democracy. Secondly, if Chinese aircraft attacked Bhutan, India has a treaty obligation
to protect.’

‘What exactly is that obligation?’ said the President.

The Defense Secretary, Alvin Jebb, spoke for the first time in the late evening emergency meeting. ‘China claims suzerainty over Bhutan, which basically means it claims to have control
over it, which the international community does not recognize. To give you a parallel, we recognize Chinese suzerainty over Tibet, but not over Bhutan. Because they’re terrified of China, the
Bhutanese signed two agreements with the British, when they ran India – the Treaty of Sinchula in 1865 and the Treaty of Punakha in 1910. After Indian independence, the provisions of the two
treaties were formally incorporated in a new agreement with India, known as the Treaty of Darjeeling, signed in 1949. The upshot is that Bhutan runs its internal affairs, while India is responsible
for defence and foreign policy. India has a similar arrangement with Nepal, but Nepal is less afraid of China and more protective of its own sovereignty.’

‘Alvin, you’re right,’ said Joan Holden. ‘But your emphasis is wrong. India is not obliged to go to war on behalf of Bhutan. It’s got the option.’

‘What’s happened to Lundrup Togden?’ said Hastings.

‘We presume he’s dead, together with a man called Major Choedrak who devised the whole operation,’ said Jebb. ‘After the helicopter attacked with a machine gun, the pilot
gave the coordinates for an airstrike. Some people managed to escape and headed to the town of Lhedam about fifteen miles south of the border. A Bhutanese helicopter came in from a place called
Jakar Dzong, which is the local administrative capital, and picked some of them up.’

‘Is Togden alive?’ said Hastings.

‘We don’t know. But the Chinese MiGs came back. They blasted the Bhutanese helicopter out of the sky. Everyone on board was killed.’

‘After all that, and they get killed as they cross the finishing line.’ Hastings was clearly upset.

‘The Chinese went on to bomb the bridge across the river which heads out of the town,’ continued Jebb. ‘They strafed the roads, killing a number of people, who are mostly
Bhutanese nationals of Tibetan origin. It was between these sorties that Bhutan asked for India’s help. Indian planes got to Jakar just as the Chinese were heading back and that’s when
the dogfights started.’

‘And they’re still going on?’

‘Seems so, Mr President.’

‘All right. Let’s put that on hold for a moment. What’s happening in Kashmir?’

‘The Indian assault is ongoing,’ said Jebb. ‘They’ve set up a buffer zone along the most sensitive part of the LoC. Casualties on both sides are heavy. I understand that
General Khan has spoken to Hari Dixit on the Prime Ministers’ hotline, but we don’t know how it went or whether there’ll be a ceasefire.’

‘We can’t be seen to be sympathizing with China in any way, Mr President,’ pressed Barber. ‘This is democratic values against dictatorship.’