New Delhi earns brickbats on Burma policy 

_ by Nava Thakruia  

The international communities poured condemnations against the military junta after Burma was bleeding, but its ‘trusted and giant’ neighbour India needed more time to criticize the regime in Nay Pyi Taw and New Delhi came out with a lukewarm response saying it was concerned at the situation in the Golden Land. The largest democracy in the globe consumed time to come out with a statement till the peaceful protests in the streets of Rangoon turned violent on September 26 that snatched away the lives of many demonstrators.  

The Friday morning witnessed thousands of monks and civilians gathered at the front of Shwedagon Pagoda, holiest Buddhist shrine in the country, where they faced government assigned security personnel. The forces with blue attire used tear-gas and even weapons to disperse protesters that instigated the monks hostile. The confrontation with the security forces later spread to Sule pagoda areas near City Hall in down town Rangoon.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that at least thirty monks and other civilians died in first three consecutive days of gory demonstration. The toll included a Japanese photojournalist too, for which the junta had already tendered apology to   Tokyo. The crackdown on the protesters started following the warning of a Burmese minister Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung. His warning followed with a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in Rangoon and Mandalay , the other major city of Burma next day. But the agitating preferred to defy the warning and continued their demonstrations throughout the country.

The bloody crackdown on the peaceful demonstrators had invited condemnation for the State Peace and Development Council led by the Senior General Than Shwe from the world communities. From United Nations to European Union and America to Britain with France, Australia , Indonesia, Japan and many other countries have come forward to raise voices against the manhandling of agitating monks in Rangoon .

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had called on authorities (of Burma ) to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place in the country. The secretary-general had sent his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to Burma asking cooperation to the mission. Gambrai meanwhile met detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi in Rangoon on September 30. The UN envoy first met the Burma’s military officials (not sure if he could meet Sen Gen Than Shwe)   at Nay Pyi Taw and then came back to Rangoon to meet the opposition leader.

The United States had already announced sanctions against 14 senior Burmese officials. The US Treasury Department said all assets of these officials within the jurisdiction of the United States are frozen and all Americans are prohibited from doing business with them. The US and the European Union, in a joint statement had urged China, India, members of  the Association of South East Asian Nations and others in the region to support the people of Burma ‘using their influence with the junta to nudge it towards real political reforms’ there.

Amidst all the hue and cry on Burma, New Delhi had awakened finally to express its concern over the recent happenings in the land of Generals  and urged the junta to be broad-based and more inclusive. India ’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna, addressing the media persons in New Delhi on September 26, said that ‘the government of India was concerned at and is closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar ( Burma)’. Later the Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee himself said in a Doordarshan interview, “As a close and friendly neighbor, India hopes to see a peaceful, stable and prosperous Myanmar, where all sections of the people will be included in a broad-based process of national reconciliation and political reform. Myanmar’s process of national reconciliation initiated by the authorities should be expedited.”

Mr Mukherjee earlier experienced an awkward situation in Bangkok few days back, where he had to face hard criticism for India ’s continued military engagement with the Burmese junta. Paying a three-day visit to Thailand in the second week of September, Mr Mukherjee attended an interactive session with the diplomats and intellectuals there. Answering the volleys of questions comprising ‘what India was doing to restore democracy in Burma’, Mukherjee reiterated New Delhi ’s foreign policy of ‘non-interference in internal matters of any country’.

India in fact lured criticism from international communities very recently while its Petroleum Minister Murli Deora paid a visit to Burma on September 23, the day world media witnessed massive protests against the junta in the country. The Indian minister certainly witnessed hundred thousand agitating people in the streets of Rangoon, but he did not make a single statement or observation. During his visit, three bilateral agreements for deep exploration in oil blocks were signed. Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh pledged to invest nearly US$ 150 million for gas exploration in the Rakhaine coast of Burma.

The civil societies and rights activists in India remained critical of New Delhi’s junta appeasing policies. While various newspaper editorials and media columns sternly condemned the Burmese junta for its suppressive attitude, the New Delhi-based rights body, Asian Centre for Human Rights has appealed the UN to be more aggressive towards the Burmese regime. Even   the ruling Indian National Congress and its ally CPM had come out with condemnation statement against the junta. Meanwhile, India’s former Prime Minister IK Gujral, Defence Minister George Fernandes and a group of Members of Parliament had termed New Delhi’s Burma policy as a disgrace.