I'm on sub-editing duty today (for my sins) and just got passed the following press release. Anyone more knowledgeable on the subject than I (that'll be everyone) care to comment on its content?
Text may not flow (it's not been subbed yet).
All the best, J...
India, the world’s largest democratic nation, has abandoned its principles in its recent dealings with the brutal and oppressive military regime of its neighbour, Burma (Myanmar). India's government traditionally supported the pro-democracy movement in Burma, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in Rangoon since her landslide victory in the Burmese election of 1990. Her insistence on using peaceful means to confront the brutal dictators in Burma echoes the teaching of Mahatma Gandhi. March 26 was the fourth Global Day of Protest against the Indian government’s involvement in developing the Shwe Gas Field in Burma’s Arakan state. The most significant investment is in the massive Shwe gas project, which will include a gas pipeline running to India. Indian companies ONGC Videsh (Oil and Natural Gas Company Videsh, India), and GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited, India) are partners in the gas project, which is led by South Korea’s Daewoo Company. The project is expected to become the Burmese military regime's largest single source of revenue, providing, on average, US$580 million per year for the regime for twenty years, or a total of US$ 12 billion.
The Burmese Army is notorious for its appalling record of human rights abuses, particularly against the ethnic minorities inside Burma. Most of the money from the sale of gas will inevitably be used by the regime to increase its weaponry. Burma has no external enemies, yet it maintains an army of over half a million men. The Army is employed by the regime to forcibly ‘relocate’ the ethnic people from the area where the gas pipeline is to be developed. Their villages are destroyed, their crops burned, their food stolen, landmines planted, people forced to carry goods for the soldiers or even used as human minesweepers many flee over the Indian border as refugees.
There are several justifications given for the shift in the attitude of the Indian government towards this brutal military regime. The primary reason is competition with China, India’s long-term rival in South-East Asia and now an equally energy-hungry ‘tiger economy’. Both China and India are wooing the Burmese generals with gifts of military hardware.
Another justification is the recurrent insurgencies in India’s Mizoram state some of which originate inside Burma. However, in spite of India’s requests and negotiations, the Burmese regime has remained sluggish in pursuing insurgents and it is even suggested that some Burmese Army personnel may see an advantage to be gained so long as the problem persists. India may have unwittingly fallen into a Catch-22 situation here by agreeing to supply the regime with arms to fight the insurgents. The flow of refugees across the Burmese border into India is sometimes used as a further justification for the Indian government’s softened attitude to the Burmese regime.
Undoubtedly the large number of refugees presents India with a significant problem and expense. However, this ignores the fact that the refugees are really being deliberately displaced from their traditional lands in order to facilitate the gas pipeline development. One might equally argue that the Indian government is paying twice over - for the gas and for the refugee problem.
It is clear that the Indian government has changed its attitude towards the Burmese military junta out of economic motives and misplaced pragmatism. However, in abandoning their friends in the pro-democracy movement in Burma, they are really storing up future trouble for themselves and for the region. The junta has destroyed the economy in Burma, causing widespread poverty, public health crisis and increasing levels of illiteracy. In the long term, India’s national and security interests demand Burma should be a democratic, economically strong and modernised nation state. India-Burma relations must be based on the common aspirations of the peoples of both countries and must benefit the masses, not merely a few military generals and their associates, as in present-day Burma.
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