Burma’s military regime has been demanding the transformation of all ceasefire groups into Border Guard Forces since April 28, 2009. The UWSA split from Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1989, reaching a ceasefire agreement with the junta the same year.
Brando wrote:Have you ever been to the Saudi Arabia ?? You dont know the first thing about Saudi Arabia! Saudis live much much more comfortable lives than probably any other nation in the Middle East or South Asia. The sheer amount of wealth and opulence of Saudi Arabia will put even the most capitalistic western city to shame.
True. In other words, democracy and secularism ends at borders of USA. Outside, its "no fair play" and pure subversive politics to protect interests of American Oil Companies at any costs. Even if it means gifting whores to Saudi rulers and dividing middle east.Brando wrote:America supports the Saudi King not because it is fond of their medieval culture or customs but because it is the best alternative available without causing world wide chaos in the event of the collapse of one of the worlds largest oil producers!
Ok, thanks for telling me what America wants. Thats where it ends. Now tell me, what India wants?Brando wrote:International relations are quite often the choice is between the bad and the worse. The Al Saud family may not be the ideal solution but it could be much much worse. These are the considerations America takes into account because it is forced to! Also due to close relations with the US, Saudi Arabia is actually much more lax than the Taliban style persecution the Wahhabists would have liked to enforce. However, in the case of Myanmar the choice is between a brutal military junta and a democratic process, the choice should be obvious to make.
Stan_Savljevic wrote:Myanmar’s determined bid to acquire nuclear capability is not India-centric. It does not perceive any threat from India, which is apparent from the deployment pattern of its military. Further, it has no fixed defences along the 1463 km long Indo-Myanmar border, which is largely undisputed. In fact, Myanmar clearly desisted from denouncing the Indian nuclear tests in May 1998.
Absolutely. Myanmar will never be a pawn of USA because it has no obsession against India like Pakistan has. Western media will never highlight this though. They will love putting hatred into Indian minds against neighbours of India because it helps increase clashes in the region and that only helps West.The military dispensation in Myanmar, very much like the regime in North Korea, is paranoid about being dislodged by an intervention, military or otherwise, of the US and its allies. The nuclear weapons capability, the Myanmar regime contends, will strategically insulate it against any such design.
This is prime reason behind American support of Pakistan army's nuclear status since 1980's.For China, a nuclear-armed Myanmar will further bolster its strategic encirclement of India, the major challenge to its regional supremacy. In the global context, proxy nuclear-states serve as robust strategic pawns in the prevailing uni-polar international order.
Why these same "analysts" has amnesia about Pakistan's nuclear programme and western ignorance of it?The most disturbing part of Myanmar’s nuclear programme is the China-North Korea-Myanmar-Pakistan-Iran axis. Some analysts reckon that it is the part of Myanmar’s nuclear programme that is not entirely of its own volition, but is a strategic manoeuvre by China and its proxies. They maintain that the large number of tunnels being dug in Myanmar is to conceal nuclear material of these countries from the international scanner. Myanmar, being an isolated and closed country, is ideal for the purpose. In other words, Myanmar may be turning into a nuclear hub for all nuclear pariah states under the leadership of China.
http://mizzima.com/news/regional/3391-i ... urma-.htmlIndian Home Secretary to visit Burma
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Indian Home Secretary Gopal K. Pillai leaves today for Burma for bilateral secretary level talks commencing on Tuesday in the Burmese capital of Naypyitaw. G.K Pillai and his Indian delegation will hold talks with a Burmese team led by Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Brigadier General Phone Swe. “He will be leaving this evening. He will be there for two days,” an official from the Indian Home Ministry told Mizzima. Though details of items to be discussed remain unknown, another official from the Joint-Secretary Office within the Indian Home Ministry said it could be a continuation of previous matters discussed in secretary level talks. {which was on throwing out NDFB, ULFA, UPLF folk from Burma down the Irawaddy river}
The last such meeting occurred between Brigadier General Phone Swe’s delegation and then Indian Home Secretary Shri Madhukar Gupta in India’s capital of New Delhi in March, 2008. The talks covered various issues including security, drug trafficking and border management. Both countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas of security and border management along their common 1,643 km border, known as a porous international crossing and common route for the smuggling of arms, drugs and counterfeit currency. According to the Indian Home Ministry, the Assam Rifles presently have 31 battalions deployed for counter-insurgency in India’s northeast and 15 more for guarding the Indo-Burmese border.
Recently, it was announced that the Assam Rifles are planning to increase the number of battalions deployed for border security to 26. Moreover, Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna raised the issue of northeast Indian insurgent groups allegedly operating out of Burmese territory on the sidelines of the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) held in Naypyitaw in December of last year. New Delhi previously decided on the construction of a border fence in Moreh in India’s northeastern state of Manipur, which shares a border with Sagaing Division and Chin State in northwest Burma.
http://mizzima.com/news/regional/3392-a ... falls.htmlAn outstanding parliamentarian, political leader with a charismatic personality Basu was all for democracy. Mizzima fondly recalls the contribution he made to the cause of democracy in Burma. Mizzima’s Editor In-Chief Soe Myint recalled, in the book "Burma File: A Question of Democracy", with gratitude Basu’s support for the democracy movement in Burma starting with his own release from prison in Calcutta in 1990. As a Communist Basu saw reason in the movement for democracy in Burma and supported it whole heartedly. "The democracy movement of Burma in exile would not have been possible without the help and sympathy of the people of West Bengal, the Government of West Bengal and India,” Soe Myint wrote in his book.
Basu continued to support the Burmese in India, even in the present instance of 34 Burmese confined in Presidency Jail. “Like Jyoti Basu another stalwart in opposite poles of politics in India, who helped me and the democracy movement of Burma is Mr George Fernandes, former Defence Minister of India. George Fernandes is battling for life in a New Delhi hospital now as Basu lost his, at 95 on Sunday. Without the former Chief Minister of West Bengal’s political support “I would still be in prison,” Mr. Myint adds recalling the towering personality’s immense contribution to his life as a Burmese democracy activist in India, who helped found the Mizzima news agency operating in exile with dedicated colleagues bringing to the world the true picture of what is happening behind the bamboo curtain in military ruled Burma.
“As I grow in India, I feel that slowly many people who had helped and supported us are leaving us one by one and I fervently hope there are new younger generations in India who will continue this tradition of people to people support and friendship between India and Burma,” adds Mr. Myint.
From the above article ....Lilo wrote:India Can Move the Needle on Burma -WSJ
Funny ... I don't remember Ms Currie advocating that legitimizing Commando's election would undermine the ideals that animate the American national identity ... After all we don't go about thumping our chests and claiming to be harbingers of "Liberty & Freedom" ...Such a blatantly manipulated election presents a serious policy challenge for India. China's unelected leadership can pronounce the Burmese junta's most deeply cynical electoral efforts to be a triumph of democracy with a straight face, but Indian leaders will and should be held to a higher standard. Giving their stamp of approval to a farcical election would undermine the ideals that animate Indian national identity.
Kelley Currie is currently a non-resident fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington, D.C., based think tank. She previously served as a political appointee working on Asia policy at the U.S. Department of State during the George W. Bush administration.
Some questions:The efforts of the Border Roads Organisation in constructing roads in Arunachal Pradesh has met with impediments like staff shortage, non-allotment of land and delay in getting approval of the ministry of forests and environment, he said.
“The BRO is grappling with constraints like lack of manpower and efforts in lifting men, machine and materials to the far-flung border areas. Another major constraint is getting clearances,” Raju said
An OT here...... look at Project 2049 Institute, looks like some opportunities for BRFitesAnimeshP wrote: Ms Currie's backgroundKelley Currie is currently a non-resident fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington, D.C., based think tank. She previously served as a political appointee working on Asia policy at the U.S. Department of State during the George W. Bush administration.
)))))The Project 2049 Institute offers internship opportunities for students and recent graduates who are interested in gaining research experience in Asia security issues. Intern responsibilities include research assistance, contributing to our blog AsiaEye, event planning and administrative support.
The next internship intake will be for January 2010 (application deadline is 01/15/10) and we also accept applications for internships on a rolling basis.
Over 80 students, including Burmese monks, on Tuesday held a protest rally at Nalanda University in India after the central government decided to strip it of its “deemed” status. Indasara, a Burmese Buddhist monk studying at the university, on Wednesday told Mizzima that protestors, including Burmese, locals and students from other countries, gathered in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Nalanda University, as their university was stripped off its “deemed” status by the Indian government.
4 Myanmarese poachers apprehended in Andaman
UNI, Port Blair, 20 January: The Andaman and Nicobar (A and N) police has apprehended four Myanmarese poachers from Wilson Island of Havelock, South Andaman. ''Yesterday, a police team, consisting of local police and IRBn personnel, apprehended four Myanmarese poachers from Wilson Island along with one wooden engine dinghy,'' the Superintendent of Police, South Andaman, V Renganathan told UNI today.
SourceExpressing concern over the fatality rate in the BRO, Badhani said it was on an average nine fatalities in 10 days and was much higher than the fatality rate of the Army battalions in Jammu and Kashmir.
Laura Bush's crusade against the Burmese military, which sees itself as the upholder of a predominantly Buddhist Burma's unity and cultural identity, has been inspired by information from some of the Christian churches that have sizable ethnic-minority adherents in that country and by a meeting she reputedly had with a Christian Karen rape victim. By contrast, she and her husband have had little problem with the military's intervention in politics in Burma's neighbors Bangladesh and Thailand.
Myanmar tourism up 25 %In a major boost for India, Myanmar is learnt to have agreed to launch "coordinated operations" to flush out north-east militants from its territory -- quite similar to what Bhutan did against ULFA by launching `Operation All Clear' in December 2003.
A simple question, where are the IndiansSome 148,000 of Myanmar's visitors last year were from Asian countries, including 42,700 from Thailand and 23,634 visitors from China.
Another 14,400 visitors were from the United States which has imposed economic sanctions on the military-run country since 1988 when the army brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protests, leaving an estimated 3,000 dead.
A total of 47,161 tourists from European countries visited Myanmar in 2009, representing 20 per cent of total arrivals. The largest group of European visitors were from France, with 10,225 visitors, followed by Germany with 8788 visitors.
? Maybe we have to blame ourselves? Based on this news item - Obtaining visa to Myanmar made easy that is what it looks like. Indian tourists have been facing a rough terrain so to speak in getting the visa. Hopefully now more Indians will tour Burma. Out of sight is out of mind; we need more Indian faces in Burma spending money and smiling cheerfully at Burmese.Myanmar produces 2.7 million tonnes of pulses annually while the domestic consumption is only 0.5 million tonnes, making it an ideal exporter to a pulses-thirsty India. Government-to-government commodity purchases work out much cheaper than other routes and were approved by an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) in late 2009. The deal being discussed was over import of urad, moong and tur “at reasonable rates.” However, the regime at Rangoon had insisted on an advance non-US dollar cash payment of over Rs 2 billion for the imports.
The Centre was keen on using the balance of trade route, instead, especially since advance cash payment violates G2G deal terms. Last month, food minister Sharad Pawar asserted that resolving the pulses demand-supply problem in India may be near impossible and that imports would continue to be the key route for more than a decade hence.
No financial details were given, but the plant will be funded by a line of credit from the government of India. Myanmar's military government held talks with an Indian delegation on March 1 in its remote capital Naypyidaw.
In Calcutta, Lt Gen Thar Aye is scheduled to meet Lt Gen Bikram Singh, on April 5
The report hints that these boats may be providedMyanmar conveyed its request to India for inshore and offshore patrol boats during a visit by its navy chief, Vice-Admiral Nyan Tun, in the last week of February
Myanmar has asked for an unspecified number -- running into tens - - of fast inshore boats and interceptors to patrol its rivers and deltas. These boats are of the type used mostly by the Indian Coast Guard.
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/det ... y1210/at06Kaladan transit project likely to be delayed
NEW DELHI, May 11 – The ambitious Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Project is likely to suffer delay on account of slippages in completion of bidding process and appointment of contractors, leading to slashing of budgetary allocation by Government of India. The grand project that envisages to link the land locked North Eastern region to an outlet to the sea through the Sittwe Port in neighbouring Myanmar, has already lost some of its importance because of recent agreement by Bangladesh to allow access to Chittagong and Mongla Ports.
This project is being executed by the Government of India under a Framework Agreement between the two countries to ease the movement of goods from mainland India to the North-Eastern states of India. The route will offer an alternate access to the North–East and therefore is strategically also important. It will also, in turn, help Myanmar develop its infrastructure and port facilities for accelerated development of the country.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 144010.eceThe Burmese Government is attempting to build nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, according to a military defector who smuggled photographs and documents of secret nuclear equipment out of the isolated dictatorship.
Evidence presented by the former Burmese officer and weapons engineer suggests that the country is still a long way from creating usable nuclear weapons. But the fact that it has even a nascent nuclear programme will cause international alarm at a time when the West is struggling to contain the ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi is touring Japan, South Korea, Burma and Cambodia in response to invitations by the four countries. “Choosing Burma among the four countries might seen as significant but Xi, who has been largely tipped to be the successor, is visiting as part of the Chinese way of introducing the next President in terms of foreign relations,” Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand said.
The Chinese Vice President would certainly try to get an assurance from the Burmese junta for stability with the neighbor along the border, he added. In August fighting broke out between the Burmese Army and Kokang rebels in North Eastern Shan State, forcing over 30,000 people to flee to China. And with several ethnic rebels rejecting the junta’s proposal of transforming their armies into a junta administered Border Guard Force (BGF), tension has been brewing between the junta’s troops and rebel armies along the Sino-Burma border. During the visit, Xi, however, is also expected to raise issues related to bilateral cooperation including the recently signed contract to build a dual gas and oil pipeline from Burma’s western Arakan coast to China’s North-western Yunnan province, Aung Kyaw Zaw said.
The question is, how true is this assertion? This is from "The Irrawaddy", a publication based in Thailand sympathetic to Burmese exiles....connecting dots obviously against the dictatorship.....and possibly getting support from the West.For Burma has become a satellite of China—economically, politically and militarily.
This is claim that the earlier influence of the BRitish and expatriates are losing out to Pro-China factions inside the Burmese.SwamyG wrote:Falling into China's Hands The gist is:The question is, how true is this assertion? This is from "The Irrawaddy", a publication based in Thailand sympathetic to Burmese exiles....connecting dots obviously against the dictatorship.....and possibly getting support from the West.For Burma has become a satellite of China—economically, politically and militarily.
With India's size and capabilities, India needs to leave Thaliand and Singapore behind.Myanmar-India bilateral trade reached US$1.19B in the fiscal Y 2009-10, increasing by 26.1% from the previous year, and India stands as Myanmar’s 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore, according to the latest official figures available on Wednesday.
Of the total, Myanmar’s export to India amounted to US$1B, and its import from India was valued at US$194B, the Central Statistical Organization said.
In Y 2008-09, the two countries’ bilateral trade was registered at US$943B, of which Myanmar’s export to India took US$144M, while its import from the country stood at US$797M.
Agricultural produces and forestry products led Myanmar’s exports to India whereas medicines and pharmaceutical products topped its imports from India.
Meanwhile, India’s contracted investment in Myanmar reached US$189M as of March 2010 since the government opened to foreign investment in Y 1988, of which US$137M were drawn into the oil and gas sector in September 2007, the statistics show.
People in Myanmar, particularly in the northern part of the country where the majority of Chinese immigrants have settled, are increasingly vocal in their criticism of the newcomers, as well as of China’s policies towards their country
Exact numbers of Chinese immigrants to Myanmar are unknown – especially as acquiring Myanmar citizenship is a fairly simple process that many have undertaken. Estimates run anywhere between one to three million.
Whatever the true figure, Mandalay, Myanmar’s second biggest city, is 30 per cent to 40 per cent Chinese, according to statistics from Global Witness, a London-based human-rights monitor; Lashio, the capital of Shan state, is dubbed “Chinatown”, and Mandarin is the language of choice in Kachin state.
That is clearly Western based activism.But that project pales in comparison to a new Asian-backed pipeline project that is much bigger and potentially more disruptive than any predecessor, according to US- and Thailand-based activists.
As India dithered, China swooped in with its proposal of twin pipelines in 2007.
It will be coming from China, boxed and shipped.Sanjay M wrote:Myanmar trying for nuke?
EDITS | Wednesday, July 21, 2010 | Email | Print | | Back
Realpolitik over morality
Ashok K Mehta
The picture is indelible. US President George W Bush strode, against the magnificent backdrop of the Purana Qila, to the microphone on the improvised stage from where he addressed India during his visit to New Delhi in 2006. He didn’t quite say what India wanted to hear, least of all, on Myanmar. He said, “India’s leadership is needed in a world that is hungry for freedom. Men and women from North Korea to Burma to Syria to Zimbabwe to Cuba yearn for their liberty…” and urged India to back American efforts to help the people of Myanmar get back their liberty. India’s response was a sharp setdown. “India does not believe in thrusting democracy down others’ throats,” said an official spokesman on the same day, when asked to respond to Mr Bush’s exhortation.
American policy towards Myanmar is changing. For the first time since 1966, a US President, Mr Barack Obama, met leaders of South-East Asian nations, including Myanmar, last year. Although it was a ceremonial occasion — the 32nd anniversary of Washington’s relations with ASEAN — the meeting was attended by the Prime Minister of Myanmar.
Now, ahead of Mr Obama’s proposed visit to India, one of the most important foreign visitors for India is due to come to New Delhi next week —Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the Burmese military junta. Gen Than rarely travels out of Myanmar (few invite him). But after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Myanmar earlier this year, Gen Than Shwe’s trip to Delhi assumes new significance.
First, the physical facts about Myanmar. Its biggest trade partners are neighbour Thailand and Singapore, besides China and India. Investments in oil and gas are virtually global. Western NGOs use devious routes to visit Yangon. India, which sent Buddhism and later its last Mughal Emperor to Burma has had to rework its relations from one of isolation to constructive engagement of the military junta. It did not abandon Aung San Suu Kyi or democracy but, guided by realpolitik and national interests, cultivated the Generals for inducing internal reform.
While this policy switch addressed India’s security concerns — namely North-East rebel sanctuaries and China’s influence in Myanmar — it did little to hasten democratic change. India’s need of Myanmar is for connectivity to the North-East denied by Bangladesh; as a bridge to the East; and for oil and gas as an alternative to Iran. A strong and effective military-to-military relationship has been developed over the years. Yet India has to ensure that it is not on the wrong side of history.
Myanmar is the only ASEAN country with land borders with four insurgency-ridden states. With its western flank resting on the epicentre of terrorism in Pakistan, India can ill-afford an unstable easternfrontier. The Generals run the most durable military regime anywhere and cannot be wished away as long as China and Russia have their veto.
But these are the bare facts. The complexity is introduced by two elements: The fact that the military regime has said elections would be held in Myanmar soon; and that Myanmar’s ethnic minorities are playing merry hell on its border with China.
An excellent report by ICRIER for the Asia Society outlines the problems that Myanmar has in engaging with the outside world. On the one hand, the regime is demonised and ostracised, while more repressive regimes elsewhere are tolerated and even feted. This leads Myanmar and the ruling regime to foster intense nationalism, which feeds on strong suspicion of foreign countries, especially neighbouring countries.
This nationalism is handy when Myanmar deals with China. Largely because of the void left by Western countries as well as India till 1988, China moved in to ‘assist’ Myanmar in a very big way. While this engagement suited Myanmar fine, China, tired of being lambasted by the international community for supporting a variety of repressive regimes all over the world, has now begun suggesting to the Myanmarese junta that it loosen its grip a bit.
The problem is, while Myanmar is grateful to the Chinese, it fears them — especially in northern Myanmar (Mandalay) where unbridled immigration from China has practically turned the region and its Shan and Kachin states into part of the Yunnan province in China. China is also constructing river, road and rail transport infrastructure through Myanmar to connect landlocked Yunnan province with the Bay of Bengal. If China were to acquire full sway over Myanmar, it would control the economy and surround India’s north-eastern States. There is evidence to suggest it is getting there. Effectively, it is clear that Myanmar has the potential to hurt India more than it can hurt Myanmar.
There is much that India can do: Offer Myanmar food-processing plants, create facilities for Myanmar to exploit and possibly export natural gas (because bringing it to India through a pipeline is not feasible). China has cottoned on to this. During Mr Wen Jiabao’s visit in June, Myanmar and China agreed to fast-track the $ 1.5 billion oil pipeline and a $ 1.04 billion gas pipeline, the construction of which started in October last year.
The pipelines will run parallel to each other and enter China at the border city of Ruili in Yunnan province and terminate in Kunming, capital of Yunnan while the 2,806-km natural gas pipeline will extend to Guizhou and Guangxi. The pipeline will diversify China’s crude oil import routes from West Asia and Africa, and avoid the sea route through the piracy-prone Strait of Malacca.
Now why didn’t we think of that? But then, it is to New Delhi that Gen Than is coming, not to Beijing. India should put aside its residual discomfort at supporting a military regime and offer Myanmar development aid and help in the spirit of generosity. All said and done, with China, Myanmar’s relationship is instrumentalist. The regime recognises this and is looking for other baskets in which to place its eggs. India should be able to offer this, even if at the cost of annoying China. New Delhi makes a big deal of its Africa policy and denies it is in a race with the Chinese in the continent. Why not develop the same approach to Myanmar, which is a neighbour after all ?
The Tamil families have been there for over a century. Visitors couldn’t miss the aroma of idlis and sambar in Tamu, close to Manipur’s Moreh. “We would joke that the best south Indian food is found in Moreh,” said Pradip Phanjoubam, the editor of Imphal Free Press. That is changing now as Chinese businessmen overtake their Tamil rivals, many of whom are now said to be looking at greener pastures in Moreh.
The Indian worries have a parallel. In the villages of Arunachal Pradesh’s Kibitho — close to the Tibet-India-Myanmar tri-junction — local sources said the population of the Hans, the dominant ethnic Chinese group, had doubled over the past year. The sources even claimed that many of the new settlers were ex-Chinese servicemen.
The Arunachal situation mirrors the tensions in Tibet where riots in 2008 traced their roots to Beijing’s policy of encouraging the Han majority to migrate to the region dominated by native Tibetans. The Dalai Lama, whom China had accused of having plotted the violence, had cited the Han migrations as a cause. Last year’s Uighur uprising in China’s Xinjiang was also blamed on discontent over Han settlers.
Myanmar is strategically important for New Delhi. Militants from Manipur and other states in the Northeast find shelter in the jungles of the country’s north. Myanmar is also a route for gunrunning and drug-smuggling.
Having gained the Myanmar regime's confidence after engaging with it consistently for a decade, India is in no mood to sacrifice its national interests by adopting a stand identical to that taken by the West . . .
India rues that the West lost an opportunity to gain Myanmar's confidence immediately after the deadly tropical cyclone Nargis hit the country in mid-2008. China was busy grappling with an equally devastating earthquake in its south-western parts during the same time. And Myanmar sensed this was a good opportunity to reach out to the world.
However, the U.S. packed its first relief convoy with Marines which immediately made the Myanmar regime suspicious of its intentions and prompted it to turn down the offer. In contrast, India received a different reception thanks to its “realistic attitude” which it wishes the West would adopt. Even though its medical teams were drawn from the military, they were allowed to venture deep into the country. And when supplies began running out and the teams began preparing to return home, the Myanmar government requested India to extend their stay.
It is not widely known but when Myanmar refused entry to the then U.N. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, it was not the West's indignation but India's persuasion that allowed him to visit the country.
India hopes that in turn there would be some forward movement on the security front with Myanmar gaining a better understanding of Indian interests in the form of total denial of sanctuary to anti-Indian groups.