Lange shrugs off warning and packs bags for India

By SIMON COLLINS

Former Prime Minister David Lange is going to India on Monday, despite a Foreign Ministry warning against travelling there.

Mr Lange, who pioneered New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy, will fly into the middle of a tense standoff between India and Pakistan that risks becoming the first war between nuclear powers.

He and his son Roy will spend two weeks in Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay). They will visit the family of Roy's Indian wife, Mitu, and friends.

Meanwhile, families of High Commission staff in India were on their way home last night, as New Zealand warns its citizens to leave India and Pakistan.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Brad Tattersfield said "most, if not all, of the dependants are going".

India and Pakistan have massed more than a million troops along their border after attacks in India that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based insurgents.

New Zealand has contingency plans to evacuate citizens if the situation worsens.

Last night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade advised against all travel to either country.

John Tulloch, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Phil Goff, said the ministry could only offer advice.

"We can't tell David not to go. It's not like the Government can say we think David has been foolhardy."

Mr Lange, who turns 60 in August, had bypass surgery last November and suffered "post-operative wobbles of anaemia". But life "is now quite joyful".

He said there would probably be shelling along the India-Pakistan border while he was in the region - "as there has been for nearly 50 years".

"There has been all-out war on three separate occasions and it would be a miracle if peace and goodwill were to break out while I'm there."