Thursday, 03 June 2010 15:47 Kyaw Mya
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese and Thai ambassadors to India met the minister of northeastern regional development in New Delhi recently to discuss trade, tourism and connectivity along the road under the huge Kaladan River transport project, but rights groups say such links are doing very little to help ordinary Burmese.
The envoys decided further talks would be held soon during the envoys’ visits to Northeastern states along Indo-Burmese border, a ministry official said on Monday.
The ambassadors from the Asean countries, Krit Kraichitti of Thailand and Kyi Thein of Burma, met Bijoy Krishna Handique, the minister of mines and development of the northeastern region (Doner) on May 26, an Indian government statement said.
“It’s a courtesy visit,” an official from the Ministry of Development of the Northeastern Region told Mizzima. “The Thailand and Burma ambassadors called up Shri Bijoy Krishna Handique for a meeting, and … came to the conclusion they would visit the Northeastern Region to explore the possibility of promoting tourism and trade in a two-phase visit.”
“The minister of mines and Doner would be co-ordinating the two-phased visit, which includes Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura in the first phase and Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh on the second,” the ministry official said, referring to six of the country’s northeastern states.
The tour date was yet to be set and “will be finalised after consulting the respective ministers. We are hoping it will be in … August and September”, he said.
The Burmese ambassador gave Handique a report on the road linking Zokhta in Mizoram State with Setpytpin in Burma. He said Burma was acting on India’s request that development of the road be expedited, the statement said.
The road is part of the “Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project” financed by India, which aims to boost links between ports on India’s eastern seaboard and Sittwe in Arakan (Rakhine) State, Burma. From there goods will be shipped along the Kaladan River from its confluence near Sittwe to Paletwa in Chin State and by road to India’s Mizoram State, which will provide an alternate route for transport of goods to India’s landlocked northeast, according to the ministry’s website.
It will comprise 333 miles (539 kilometres) of waterways and 140 miles of roads. India and Burma signed the overall deal in April last year.
According to the official, measures to promote border trade were also discussed and a recent notice from India’s export-import watchdog, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, expanding permitted commodities for trade along the Indo-Burmese border, was also presented.
A list of 21 commodities had been allowed for trade with Burma but on May 12, the watchdog added 18 categories to the permitted items that included bicycle parts, life-saving drugs, fertilisers, spices, incense sticks, sugar, salt and stainless-steel utensils.
The meeting also aimed to build cultural ties. Last year Handique launched a cultural exchange programme that started with youth sport and music activities in the Northeastern Region and in December, a cultural troupe from Burma visited Kohima, Imphal and Guwahati, the capitals of Nagaland, Manipur and, home of the Assamese capital, Dispur, respectively. Abiogenesis, a band that fuses the traditional music of Nagaland with modern rock, performed at the National Theatre in Rangoon on May 28, and in Mandalay on May 30.
However India’s soft diplomacy with Burma keeps one eye firmly fixed on the latter’s natural energy resources. Indian government corporations such as ONGC and gas transporter GAIL (India) have secured stakes in gas-field development and onshore pipeline projects in Burma.
In recent years, Indo-Burmese relations have improved significantly as trade has increased. Indian companies such as Essar Group and the former National Hydroelectric Power Corporation known now as NHPC are among the top investors that have begun to capitalise on Burma’s abundance of natural resources.
Essar’s engineering subsidiary signed a contract with the Indian foreign ministry recently for dredging and construction of cargo barges to aid shipping along the Kaladan River, a section of the Kaladan transport project. The construction of the port at Sittwe was a major component of the deal. Essar said in a statement.
But certainly not all Burmese will benefit. Aung Marm Oo, director of the Arakan Rivers Network said in Chiang Mai, Thailand last November said that the proposed project, especially the dredging, would devastate livelihoods in Sittwe, Pongnakyun and Kyaukthaw townships in Arakan, while in Chin State, the people of Paletwa Township would also pay a heavy price.
“The first group to be affected is people who earn a living from fishing in the Kaladan River,” Aung Marm Oo said.
Essar said its responsibilities also included 120 kilometres of road to be built in Burma from the river terminal in Paletwa to the India-Burma border in the northeast, but that road construction would be under a separate contract.
NHPC projects have involved a number of hydropower schemes, such as the Tamanthi Dam in Sagaing Division, which rights groups have condemned on grounds of human rights abuses and environmental devastation.
Rights group Burma Rivers Network said an estimated 80 per cent of the electricity produced will not serve ordinary Burmese, who suffer extensive power outages and rationing, even in the old capital, Rangoon – but will go to India. Electricity in Burma is reportedly slated to power the Monywa mining operation.
The group said the dam “is expected to displace 30,000 people in Sagaing Division, including more than 35 Kuki villages, and flood approximately 17,000 acres [6,900 hectares] of fertile farmland”.
“In late 2007, approximately 380 households were forcibly relocated from Leivomjang and Tazong villages, which are located between Tamanthi and Homalin in Sagaing Division,” the group said on its website. “The villagers were instructed to move to a relocation site named ‘ShwePyiAye Village’ [after junta Senior General Than Shwe and Vice-Senior General Maung Aye]. The site has no fertile farmland and many villagers are trying to flee. Since construction activities began, increased Burma Army abuses have been reported near the Tamanthi site.”
“More than six per cent of the Tamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary will be inundated by the dam, including the vital habitats of globally endangered large mammals such as tiger … elephant … and the endemic Burmese roofed turtle will be lost forever as no other site for this species is currently known,” the group said.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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