Burma Campaign urges Cameron to press India on Burmese issues

Friday, 30 July 2010 19:11 Kyaw Mya

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma Campaign UK has called on British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague to raise Burmese issues in meetings with their Indian counterparts during their three-day visit to India, according to the rights group.

Among those travelling with Cameron are finance minister George Osborne, Business Secretary Vince Cable and senior British business leaders, who arrived India on Tuesday as the Burmese junta’s entourage of more than 80 ministers and their wives led by Senior General Than Swe concluded its five-day tour of the country.

Zoya Phan, international co-ordinator at Burma Campaign UK told Mizzima: “We have asked the British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague to raise Burma issues with the Indian Government to urge … [it] to promote human rights and democracy in Burma.”

She added “We do not know exactly what they will be talking about but I hope that Cameron prioritises the Burma situation with the world’s largest democracy, India”

Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner said, “We understand that William Hague and David Cameron will both be raising the situation in Burma in meetings with the Indian government, which is very welcome.”

“The British Government is very clear that they do not agree with the approach that India is taking and that [London ] … sees that there should be increased pressure on the dictatorship and that they don’t see the Indian approach as being one that is effective in bringing about any real change in Burma,” he said.

Cameron’s coalition entourage flew in to Bangalore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, where many leading British firms have offices. They visited India’s state –run Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), the Infosys campus at Electronic City, an Indian Ministry of Defence manufacturing unit and met the governor of Karnataka before flying to New Delhi yesterday.

Barclays, Vodafone, SAB Miller and English Premier League bosses are among the business delegation while Cambridge and other academics and sporting figures, including 2012 Olympics chairman Lord Coe, also made the trip.

While in Bangalore, the youngest of British prime ministers on Wednesday presided over the signing of a contract worth a total of £700 million (US$1.09 billion) between BAE Systems – the biggest defence contractor in Europe – and Rolls Royce, and HAL, to build 57 BAE Hawk jet trainers under licence.

The Cameron government’s delegation met Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh yesterday and held separate talks with President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari and External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna.

Meanwhile, the entourage of Burmese head of state Than Shwe, the leader of the State Peace and Development Council of Burma, the junta’s name for itself, was yesterday winding down a tour that had seen India open its arms with the signing of a range of bilateral political, economic, security and cultural pacts on Tuesday.

According to the Burma Campaign’s Mark Farmaner, India was concerned about the growing clout its rival China was wielding in Burma, citing the warm welcome for Than Shwe. The junta’s entourage began its visit to the country on Sunday by offering prayers that day and Monday at the Mahabodhi temple, scene of the Buddha’s enlightenment, in Bodhgaya in the eastern state of Bihar.

Farmaner told Mizzima: “India is trying to get closer to the dictatorship mainly because it wants to counter Chinese influence in Burma … India’s policies towards Burma are a disgrace and without any principle and brings shame to the country, and it will damage India’s reputation worldwide,” he added.

“India main concern is about Chinese influence in Burma, but India is making a mistake because they will never be able to compete with China, diplomatically and economically,” he said.

Farmaner further asserted that India in the long term was backing the wrong horse.

“The strategy it has of moving closer to the regime will fail and so it would be more sensible for India to support Burma’s democracy movement because the generals will not be in charge forever. And India is making a mistake by being such a strong supporter of the dictatorship in Burma.”

“I think they will look back on it [signing of pacts with the junta on Tuesday] as a day of shame in their history,” Farmaner said.

Than Shwe and Singh signed deals for co-operation between their nations’ security forces to tackle terrorism and strengthen teamwork along India’s northeastern border with Burma. They also settled on a road map for closer economic engagement.

The neighbours share a 1,020-mile (1,640-kilometre) unfenced frontier, which allows militants from northeast India to use the adjoining country as a springboard for hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on Indian soldiers.

The Indian foreign ministry outlined the deals in a statement on Tuesday. They are a “treaty on mutual assistance in criminal matters, a memorandum of understanding regarding Indian grant assistance for implementation of small development projects, an agreement for co-operation in the fields of science and technology, a memorandum of understanding on information co-operation and a memorandum of understanding for the conservation and restoration of the Ananda Temple in Bagan [Pagan]”.

India has also offered US$60 million in finance for a revamp of the 140 mile Rhi-Tiddim road connecting Mizoram State and Burma, considered a lifeline for boosting trade and commerce. It has also announced a grant of US$10 million for Burma to buy agricultural machinery from India and US$6 million to upgrade the microwave link between Moreh in Manipur State and Mandalay.

In response to India’s apparent disregard for the brutality the Burmese regime represents, former leftist Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly, expressed anger at New Delhi’s entertainment of Than Shwe. She had this week protested against his visit with Burmese refugees in the capital.

“I feel very angry with what India is doing; India is showing itself not to be big but to be even smaller than a dirty military dictatorship,” she said.

“Today everybody wants trade and selfishness is convenient. Also the big arms dealers likes to give guns to the [Burmese] military; this is a shame particularly for a country that calls Mahatma Gandhi the father of the nation,” she continued.

The critics of India’s acquiescence to the Burmese regime say New Delhi has forgotten its role as the world’s largest democracy and its historic support for Burmese pro-democracy forces.

The junta’s laws governing elections scheduled to take place later this year in Burma have effectively banned Novel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was also honoured by India with its equivalent humanitarian prize, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1993. Her National League for Democracy party had its landslide victory in Burmese elections in 1990 unceremoniously rejected by the ruling military junta.

Britain meanwhile is one of the strongest supporters of Burmese political reform after the United States and has sanctions against the military regime and a global arms embargo. It is also a strong proponent for a United Nations commission of inquiry on the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Burmese dictatorship.