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BURMA RELATED NEWS - JUNE 05-06, 2005. YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar has received a US$9 million (€6.97 million) grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to support the country's campaign against malaria, a semiofficial newspaper reported. The National Malaria Control Program will use the grant to fund a range of activities aimed at fighting the mosquito-borne disease until March 2007, the Myanmar Times reported Sunday, quoting the department's manager, Dr. San Lwin. The effort is expected to halve the incidence of malaria by 2010 by providing expanded treatment for the public and training courses for health workers and volunteers, he said. About 700,000 of Myanmar's 42 million people seek treatment for malaria at government hospitals each year, including about 2,000 who eventually die from the disease, San Lwin said. The grant is part of a US$35.6 million (€27.59 million) package for Myanmar from the Geneva-based Global Fund, which includes US$19.2 million earmarked for efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and about US$7 million for anti-tuberculosis programs. The Global Fund is a public-private partnership that receives most of its funding from donor governments. YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Military-ruled Myanmar plans to sign an agreement with neighboring Thailand to cooperate in fighting money laundering linked to transnational crime, a semiofficial newspaper reported Sunday. Officials from Myanmar's Central Control Board and Thailand's Anti-money Laundering Office are expected to sign the deal soon, said the Myanmar Times, a privately owned newspaper that is censored by the military government. The memorandum of understanding will focus on cooperation and information sharing, the report said, quoting police Col. Sit Aye, head of the home affairs department against transnational crimes. The deal will be signed in the Myanmar capital, Yangon, but a date has not yet been confirmed, the report said. Myanmar introduced an anti-money laundering law in 2002 that gives authorities wide-ranging powers to investigate and seize assets acquired through criminal activities such as trafficking in drugs, people, arms and ammunition. Last April, Myanmar adopted the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters law, which facilitates cooperation with other countries in combating transnational crime and crimes related to money laundering. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar, under pressure to relinquish its forthcoming chairmanship of the ASEAN regional grouping, said on Saturday it was too early to decide and hinted that it may be working on an alternative solution. The United States and the European Union have threatened to boycott high-level meetings with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) if Myanmar takes over the group's chair next year without making progress on human rights, including freeing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "Only we can decide. It is still very early," Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Maung Myint told Reuters on the sidelines of a security conference on Saturday. Asked whether Myanmar would give in to international pressure and relinquish the ASEAN chair, he said: "No, we are preparing another situation." He declined to elaborate. Myanmar government members rarely discuss the issue in public. In May, Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Supamongkon hinted that Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, could delay its turn to lead ASEAN to avoid confrontation with the West. One suggested solution would be for Myanmar -- under military rule of one form or another since 1962 -- to become chairman, but for Thailand to host all big diplomatic meetings. "I cannot see this happening. Myanmar would not allow it. If it has to be elsewhere, Bangkok would be the last place," former Thai deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra told Reuters, referring to a long history of strained relations between the two large Southeast Asian neighbours. "ENGAGE, DON'T HUMILIATE" Thailand has strong commercial ties with Yangon's reclusive generals and has favoured "constructive engagement" with them rather than sanctions. Paribatra said that if Myanmar is forced to withdraw from the ASEAN chair, there is a danger that the country might withdraw from the organisation altogether. He said that whatever the solution, there should be no loss of face for Myanmar. "The question of face is very important for the Burmese," he told Reuters at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Asia Security Conference in Singapore. Kishore Mahbubani, dean of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and former Singapore ambassador to the U.N. agreed. "Behind the scenes, people are working on a solution. The key thing is that nobody is humiliated," he said. The issue has threatened the unity of 10-member ASEAN, with some member countries opposing Myanmar's chairmanship unless it shows concrete progress in implementing a roadmap to democracy. ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. The grouping's rotating chairmanship is based on alphabetical order. Laos currently chairs the group. JOHOR BARU, Sat: A Myanmar mother and her eight- month-old daughter who were ordered released by the High Court here last week have been re-arrested. Last Monday, High Court judge K.P. Gengadharan ordered the release of Faridah because of procedural flaws in her detention under the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1985. Mahendran said if police were unhappy with the decision of the High Court, they should have appealed to the Court of Appeal. However, he said Faridah was re-arrested together with her baby and sent to the Kluang police lock-up after the order to release them was served to officers at the detention centre last Thursday. An officer of the Kluang police Narcotics Department confirmed that Faridah had been re-arrested and transferred to the Johor police headquarters. Mahendran said attempts to see his client had been denied, adding that he was told his client would be held for 60 days for investigations. He said the arrest was made in bad faith as his client had already been detained for the past eight months, and any investigation should have been completed by now. During the habeas corpus application last week, the High Court was told that Faridah was detained at the gate of the detention centre on Sept 17 last year when she was there to receive her husband who was released from the centre. Azizah’s husband, Myanmar national Tan Jun, was released and subsequently deported, while police detained Faridah with her baby. "People worship and pray at his mausoleum for his blessings. He is worshipped as a pir (a holy man) who dispenses miracles to the pure of spirit," said Aye Lwin alias Mohammad Yunus, a member of the Bahadur Shah Zafar Mausoleum committee that manages the heritage monument located in the heart of this capital city. "He is revered by not only Muslims but by people of other faiths, including Buddhists. He has emerged as a symbol of inter-faith harmony," said Lynn, an officer with the Myanmar International Television. Waheeda, a Muslim girl whose parents migrated from Pakistan to Myanmar more than 100 years ago, said, "For us, he is more than a symbol. He is close to our hearts." This is a miraculous transformation for an emperor, who spent his last days in an alien land passionately composing soulful sad poems pining for the loss of his country and his beloved family. Bahadur Shah Zafar had emerged as the rallying point for thousands of India's first war of independence in 1857. The British exiled him to Myanmar in 1858 after the uprising had been crushed. He was kept in a garage attached to the bungalow of Captain Nelson Davies, a junior British officer and died a sad, broken man four years later in 1862. His family in India was relentlessly persecuted by the British to crush their capacity for another rebellion. The emperor, known for his spiritual inclination at an early age, became a 'Murshid' (spiritual guide) in the Chistiya sufi order at the age of 40. The poet-king's "real grave" was found in 1991 when a memorial hall was being built at the mausoleum site. During the digging operation, his grave, diligently concealed by the British, was finally discovered nearly 130 years after his death. Alongside Zafar's grave are the graves of his wife Zeenat Mahal and granddaughter Raunaq Zamani. The British took care to suppress the emperor's grave for fear that it might emerge as a potent symbol of anti-colonial assertion by Indians, explained Aye Lwin. Interestingly, this was the historic place from which nationalist leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave the call of "Delhi Chalo" (march to Delhi) in 1942 to Indians thirsting for freedom. Bahadur Shah's mausoleum is a must-see for Indians visiting the city, especially dignitaries from the subcontinent. A handsomely bound message book has glowing words from the pens of India's former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, former Pakistan ruler Zia-ul Haq and Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. "I pay my last homage to the memory of the symbol and rallying point of India's first war of independence. That war has now been won. ...But your sacrifice has been linked forever to the lore of India's freedom struggle," says Rajiv Gandhi's message scrawled in his elegant long hand. Gandhi visited Myanmar in 1987. The intense loneliness of the man who was once emperor of India still resonates powerfully through his poems. His epitaph, written in the form of a ghazal, reads: "Kitna hai badnaseeb Zafar, dafn ke liye do gaz zameen bhi na mili ku-e-yaar mein" (How unlucky is Zafar! He couldn't get even two yards of earth for burial in his beloved country). However, the emperor has been resurrected in his exiled land with people celebrating his 'urs' (death anniversary) every year with feeling and fervour. The Indian embassy organises a grand qawwali programme at the mazaar (shrine) under the sponsorship of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). Myanmar and Thailand are due to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here later this month to cooperate in suppressing money laundering especially against laundering of funds obtained from transnational crimes, a local weekly journal reported Monday. The MoU, to be inked between the Central Control Board (CCB) of Myanmar and the Anti-Money Laundering Office of Thailand, would provide for the two countries in information sharing on money laundering control, the Department Against Transnational Crimes was quoted by the Myanmar Times as saying. According to the journal's earlier report, Myanmar is introducing a plan to fight money laundering in the country and the draft of the plan, once finalized and approved by the CCB, will be submitted to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which had listed Myanmar as among non-cooperative countries and territories in dealing with money laundering. The FATF move partly hindered Myanmar's chance to obtain aid from international financial institutions, the Myanmar police force blamed, saying that although the task force withdrew other measures against the country after it enacted the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Law in 2004, Myanmar still remains on the said list until it fully implements the necessary laws. Myanmar promulgated a law in June 2002 to control money laundering and financial institutions such as banks are required to report to the CCB their clients' fiscal activities and report any cashes exceeding 100 million kyats (100,000 US dollars) and any other suspicious account activities. However, no suspected laundering has so far been reported although the board had monitored over 2,000 reports on cash and property transactions, according to the International Relations Department of the Home Ministry. Meanwhile, the CCB has provided trainings to some dozens of officials from more than 20 state and private banks in Yangon and Mandalay on countering money laundering and financing terrorism. To step up fight against money laundering, Myanmar has set up an eight-member investigation body under the CCB to launch probe into matters legalizing money and property obtained by illegal means. Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities revoked in the end of March the business licenses of two local private banks -- the Myanmar Mayflower Bank (MMB) and the Asia Wealth Bank (AWB)-- which had been under government investigation for allegedly linking with money laundering since December 2003. As part of its increased international cooperation in the aspects, Myanmar joined in signing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in April 2004. Source: Xinhua Myanmar press on Sunday called on the public to deal with urbanization problems through implementing related rules and regulations on environment protection. To cope with challenges posed by growing urbanization, city residents had to adhere to their civic duties, while satellite towns were needed, said an article published by the state-run English newspaper New Light of Myanmar. The paper appealed to the city residents to conform to the rules and regulations in force and adhere to their civic duties, noting that the country's cities such as Yangon and Mandalay have witnessed massive migration since the 1900's. Myanmar's population has reached over 53 million and is reckoned to attain 61 million by 2010. Urban and rural dwellers remain at 25 percent and 75 percent respectively at present. The two major cities of Yangon and Mandalay have all witnessed increase of city population, which presently stood at 6 million and 800,000 respectively. Meanwhile, the government has projected to further expand the area of Yangon, which has doubled in the past nine years. Though a dozen of other major cities still have small population and no immediate urbanization worries, the national environmental policy adopted in 1994 included measures to harmonize economic development and environmental protection in cities. To commemorate the World Environment Day falling on Monday, the country¡¯s National Commission for Environmental Affairs will organize a series activities Source: Xinhua Australia is falling behind the region and the world in putting pressure on Burma's brutal regime, writes Garry Woodard. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's recent controversial Page oration, which historians have had a field day dissecting, also claimed for conservatives a unique devotion to "furthering the cause of freedom and democracy". However, his actions on Burma, a narco-state from whose heroin Australians suffer most, just cannot be squeezed into that construct. The first Howard Government refused to follow the American lead in 1997 in imposing economic sanctions against the ruling military junta, which had rejected a decisive popular vote on May 27, 1990, for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in Burma's only election since 1960. The 1990 election was free and fair, as the result showed. The shocked generals had to eat their words that they would transfer power to an elected parliament. They took refuge in the subterfuge that the election was only for an assembly to discuss a constitution, which remains a mirage. Instead of joining the US and, later, European countries, Australia went off on a frolic of its own. It introduced a Human Rights Training program, which pandered to the military establishment, and was roundly condemned by the democracy movement. Although it promised parliament a full accounting, HRT seems to have been quietly terminated. George Bush, in renewing economic sanctions against Burma, has declared it "a threat to the national security and foreign policy" of the US. The European Union has also extended sanctions. The Canadian parliament has resolved that Canada should follow suit. All are impatient with the junta's pattern of internal oppression and international deceit, notably its orchestration of a bloody disturbancein May 2003 to justify re-imprisoning NLD leaders. Two years later, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela's successor as the world's most famous prisoner of conscience, is under the psychological stress of having no contact with the outside world except for medical treatment.Australia's challenge on Burma is just to catch up with the ASEAN governments and legislatures, which are ahead of it. The new Bush doctrine that democracy takes priority over stability ups the ante for Burma. Its unsettling effect on the military, whose obsession is to retain power, was shown when they blamed the CIA for bombings in Rangoon on May 7. But the Bush rhetoric, which turns 85 years of US foreign policy on its head, and which Downer seemingly was aping, has a downside. It is not likely to win many friends internationally. It could prove counterproductive if there were a move to declare Burma's seat in the UN vacant, as happened to Pol Pot's Kampuchea. It will require such a drastic step for international pressure to threaten the junta, which faced a popular uprising in 1988 partly sparked by national shame that resource-rich Burma had been declared one of the world's 10 least developed countries. While the United Nations has proved impotent, to Kofi Annan's unconcealed frustration, the International Labour Organisation has been more effective than government institutions. Burma has taken some steps in response to ILO pressure on the issue of forced labour, just one arrow in the full quiver of human rights abuses for which it has been condemned internationally for 14 years. However, a high-level group led by former governor-general Sir Ninian Stephen definitively registered ILO dissatisfaction by cutting short a recent visit. The ILO, too, at its current meeting is likely to impose sanctions, which were agreed upon but suspended in 2001. More importantly, the junta's gathering troubles are replicated in its region. Faced with US and EU threats to boycott the ASEAN-plus Summit in 2006 if Burma takes the chair, ASEAN has until a foreign ministers' meeting next July to try to persuade the junta to step aside. The four ASEAN countries most active in pressuring Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia, have given their legislatures unusual licence to join to add to their pressure. The parliamentarians have gone beyond governments in unequivocally demanding that Aung San Suu Kyi be released from confinement and restrictions. China is the junta's most important and loyal backer, but it would have disapproved of the sensational purge last October of the prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, and the dreaded MI (military intelligence), which he headed. MI was the equivalent of the political cadre in the Chinese army plus our ASIO and ASIS. There was conjecture that the politically savvy Khin Nyunt was deposed in part because he was China's preferred candidate. The assumption that the army was united, immune to Burma's chronic factionalism and impervious to outside influence was spectacularly destroyed. The junta has since sought closer co-operation with India, seemingly feeling a need to play off its two powerful neighbours. China and India are seen as rivals; from Burmese island bases China monitors India's nuclear tests. But the tactic is risky. There is increasing warmth in India-China relations: the two great powers might develop a common interest in having a more predictable and presentable regime in power in the country that is the hinge between south and east Asia. In the negotiations about Australia signing the ASEAN Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation, Downer has chosen to cite Burma as a human rights difference with ASEAN, which must be acknowledged. Burma will give rise to differences, especially over the US veto on international aid. But today Australia's challenge on Burma is just to catch up with the ASEAN governments and legislatures, which are ahead of it in pressuring an indefensible and unacceptable regime. Garry Woodard is a senior fellow in politics at Melbourne University and a former Australian ambassador to Burma. The projects, which also involve the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), will be implemented in this capital city and the second largest city Mandalay, the FAO resident representative was quoted as saying by the 7-Day News journal Thursday. OPEC is currently implementing a $12 million project to help Myanmar upgrade its oil crops production for self-sufficiency. The government will provide another $2 million for the venture. The five-year project, the biggest since 1988, will assist farmers in 36 main oil seed growing areas and deal mainly with the development of oil palm and four oil seed crops - sesame, groundnut, sunflower and soybean. Myanmar obtained OPEC's international development fund in May 2003, which was provided at an annual interest rate of one percent payable in 25 years. OPEC has previously provided Myanmar with loans for agriculture, telecommunications, energy, transport and water supply improvement networks. According to official statistics, Myanmar produces around 250,000 tonnes of edible oil annually and imports the same amount of palm oil to meet its local demand. Its cultivated areas of oil crops have reached 2.8 million hectares. The country has been making efforts to turn southern Tanintharyi division into an oil bowl. Companies from Malaysia and Thailand are carrying out feasibility studies for investment in oil palm cultivation in Myanmar. (IANS) Nearly 50 illegal immigrants from Burma and one trafficker were arrested yesterday in two separate incidents in Mae Hong Son and Phrae provinces, police said. Forty-one Burmese were arrested in Mae Hong Son in four pickup trucks en route to construction sites in Chiang Mai’s Mae Chaem district. One trafficker, Saksin Thitinanapatcharakun, 27, was arrested, while three others fled the scene. During police questioning, Saksin said he was paid Bt20,000 to transport the Burmese to Chiang Mai. The Burmese – who were from Ban Hua Muang and Ban Na Mon – held entry passes issued by Mae Hong Son immigration that restricted then from travelling more than 12 kilometres from their border villages. However, immigration officials apparently allowed them to travel beyond the restricted area on their way to Chiang Mai. In Phrae province, five Burmese women were arrested at a border checkpoint across from Burma’s Tha Chi Lek. Police said they were driving a car belonging to Pol Sergeant Sithi Wanna, 24, from Bang Len district in Nakhon Pathom. He is wanted for questioning, they said. The women said they each paid Bt10,000 for the transport to Nakhon Pathom. Burmese kings in the distant past had fanciful ideas of relocating their capital. It is perhaps no wonder then that the current military rulers are having similar thoughts, though for less grandiose reasons. Now, according to military analysts in the capital, the generals have a blueprint to move their military headquarters, or War Office as it's called, from Rangoon to Pyinmana, in central Burma's Mandalay division. But what for and does it make sense? Yes it does, if you accept that the generals are becoming a little paranoid. Some analysts believe junta leaders are afraid that the US might launch a seaborne invasion of Burma. And if they do, coastal Rangoon would be the first to be hit. According to this theory, military leaders fear the capital could be under siege within hours of an invasion. Even more far-fetched, perhaps, are reports that the junta is also worried that the US attack may come overland from neighbouring Thailand, a close US ally. Unfounded fears? Perhaps. Many will immediately dismiss such thoughts, and laugh at the idea of the US sending warships to Burmese waters, with F-16 jets screaming through the air to bomb the war office on Signal Pagoda Road. Surely the US has enough on its plate in the Middle East and Afghanistan to worry about little Burma, even though it has clamped tough sanctions on the country. But some diplomats and other analysts in Rangoon say that paranoia really does exist among the Burmese brass. There has been persistent fear of a possible US invasion since the Iraq war, some analysts in Rangoon say. Therefore, the generals are thought to have drawn up contingency plans. The Burmese analysts in Rangoon believe the junta only wants a better defence strategy, with no thought of any foreign adventure itself. At the same time, analysts realise the generals are not that stupid. They are smart enough to figure out what's going on in Washington. They are also said to be aware that the US has a long list of enemies, and Burma is nowhere near top of the hit list. The analysts think this is all part of the generals' future plans. Burma's junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe has been stressing lately the country's need to build a strong, efficient and modern armed forces means a long shopping list of nice new military toys but almost certainly stopping short of acquiring a nuclear deterrent. Burma has brought MiG 29 jet fighters from Russia and anti-missile facilities. In 2003, Burma bought armoured personnel carriers from Ukraine. Rangoon has reportedly signed a contract with Malyshev HMB plant in Kharkov to provide 1,000 new BTR-3U light armoured personnel carriers. From India, Rangoon has bought 75mm howitzers and a radar system. Australian military analyst William Ashton says the Burmese government has been on an accelerated arms-buying spree since 2002. Although it is unclear where the regime has obtained the substantial funds needed to buy sophisticated arms, analysts suspect most of the money is offshore gas revenue. Apart from upgrading weaponry in the navy and air force, the government has also increased the size of the Burmese army. In 1988, it had 180,000 men, but by mid-1995, the army's personnel strength rose to 265,000 officers and men, with the main combat element comprising a total of 245 light infantry battalions, according to Australian military analyst Andrew Selth. Now, the junta reportedly aims to increase army strength to around 400,000 men. So now the question is why Pyinmana? Some military analysts think Pyinmana is strategically important. Not only is it safe from possible air attacks from an invading force, but the generals can also vanish in thick jungle and mountainous terrain around the area, to stage guerrilla warfare against any intruders. Western diplomats say the generals also want to install surface to air missiles there. Pyinmana, a former stronghold of communist insurgents, is in central Burma and within easy reach of frontier Shan, Kayah, Chin and Karen states. So generals could improve lines of communication with troops in front-line areas. With Pyinmana as their headquarters, the generals would be able quickly to deal with areas where ethnic minority insurgents could cause trouble. Pyinmana was the site of the military headquarters of Burma' s independence hero Gen Aung San during the Japanese occupation in World War Two. Since the collapse of the Communist Party of Burma in 1989, the communist threat, particularly in the Pegu and Arakan ranges and along the Chinese border, no longer exists. Moreover, with cease-fires with more than a dozen ethnic minority insurgent groups, the generals can now feel more secure.This factor may have encouraged them to start planning military expansion. Indeed, the plan appears to be massive and under way. Office buildings, bunkers, fortresses, hospitals, underground tunnels, military airstrips and military mansions are reported to have been built around Pyinmana. Some government buildings and schools in Pyinmana are now under threat as the government might relocate them in the future. The project was initiated by former prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt who also served as military adviser to Than Shwe. After Khin Nyunt was removed in October last year the project now is handled by high-ranking officials at the War Office in Rangoon. Locals also see senior officials fly in with helicopters overseeing the projects. Two prominent Burmese companies, Asia World and Htoo Trading, have been given contracts to build new military offices. Both companies are known to be well connected to the military rulers. For instance, Te Za, in his 40s, managing director of Htoo Trading Co, is close to junta head and armed forces chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Reports say he was instrumental in helping the junta buy MiG-29 fighters and helicopters from Russia. An army of electricians, plumbers and technicians is said to have been hired and sent to the area. Witnesses of new military facilities in Pyinmana said that a 300-bed military hospital is being built. More infantry troops are being stationed there. Some analysts think the generals are also planning adequate power supplies for the new military facilities, and are keeping a close watch on these and other projects connected with the new military centre. In early April, junta number two Dep Snr-Gen Maung Aye visited the Paunglaung dam project in the Pyinmana area. Burmese newspapers say the project, started in 1997, is the country's first underground hydropower project, and one of the biggest in the power network. Military analysts are interested to fathom the generals' forward thinking. Apart from preparing for a possible invasion and securing their long-term rule, some think junta leaders are also drawing up contingency plans to deal with any major uprisings and maybe even fractures in the army. Aung Zaw is the editor of the Irrawaddy magazine based in Chiang Mai. www.irrawaddy.org Yangon, June 5: An equation on a board in the office of Thet Win Tu, the first secretary in the embassy of Myanmar in Delhi, reads: 1 Indian = brain, 10 Indians = chaos; 1 Japanese = zero, 10 Japanese = 1 Toyota. The intended pun on the unruly nature of Indians notwithstanding, there is a marked improvement in the ties between Delhi and the junta in Yangon. This is largely because of India’s continued silence over the house arrest of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi despite Left parties asking the United Progressive Alliance government to press for the pro-democracy leader’s release. Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990, has been in and out of jail since 1989. She has been under house arrest since May 31, 2003. In Yangon, nobody talks about Suu Kyi or about human rights. However, the junta is worried about the Americans and feels there is a “sinister” US plan to help separatists in the northern Shan province. Government officials feel the US is plotting to intervene as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yangon is, therefore, warming up to major regional players like India. Myanmar is helping India cement its ties with the Association of South East Asian Nations and backing the country in its bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. India is also aware of Myanmar’s geostrategic position. India and China are working on a plan to reopen the strategic Stilwell Road through Myanmar, which would reduce the distance between the two countries from 6,000 km to 1,300 km and turn Southeast Asia into a major trading hub. Delhi cites the 1,400-km common border with Myanmar, the only Asean country to share a border with India, as one of the imperatives for improving ties. Officials say the pillar of India’s Look East policy is better ties with Myanmar and also point to the security scene in the Northeast. The Indian ambassador in Yangon, Rajeev K. Bhatia, described Myanmar as “a complex country passing through transition from tradition to modernity, from a military form of government to democracy according to their own programmes and policies”. There is much in Myanmar to remind one of India. The Indian diaspora, estimated to be about 10 lakh, is well entrenched. A majority of them are Tamils. There are also many Bengalis, Biharis and people from Andhra Pradesh. An uninformed visitor could mistake the round-shaped Myanmarese script as that of Telugu with a good Sanskrit coating. Neat and well laid out, Yangon has the quaint look of a south Indian town. The Indian connections include Subhas Chandra Bose, whose Indian National Army fought near Yangon, the mausoleum of the last Mughal emperor, and the father-in-law of petroleum minister Mani Shakar Aiyar, who died fighting for the British against Netaji’s forces and is buried in the war cemetery in the city. Part of Shyam Benegal’s Bose, The Forgotten Hero was shot in the city last year. Aware that the China factor is inhibiting Yangon’s relations with Delhi, President Than Shwe is now crafting a Look Around policy in consonance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Look East policy. “All neighbours are friends. Though we are more friendly with China, there is a growing realisation that cooperation with India is good for both the countries,” said a government official. June 3, 2005 (DVB) - The UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) said Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities have been pressurising and intimidating Burmese people who report forced labour practices to the organisation. The comment was made by ILO’s Rangoon-based representative Richard Horsey in his latest report to be sent to the organisation’s conference on 4 June and he expressed his serious concern over the matter. Horsey provided as an example, the case of Ko Win Lwin who was killed during a force labour session at Ngapyin Village, Aunglan (Allen) Township, Magwe Division in central Burma. He pointed out how the victim’s brother was forced to change his witness statement after he was pressurised and intimidated by the authorities. Moreover, Labour minister U Thaung and other officials told him that a third party sent “wrong information” to the ILO and the authorities are preparing “to take action” on those involved, according to Horsey. The authorities are not only pressurising the family members of Ko Win Lwin but also preparing to arrest those who have been helping the family to report the incident to the ILO. The authorities also told the villagers including the victim’s family members that if they withdraw the case, they would be given special rights and other enticing opportunities, according to a local villager. |
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