By GAVIN RABINOWITZ,

AP

Posted: 2007-10-23 03:53:37

NEW DELHI (AP) – A United Nations envoy visited Indian leaders on Tuesday, hoping to rouse the world’s largest democracy from its relative silence over the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests by the military government in neighboring Myanmar .

U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari is on a six-nation tour to press Asian nations – in particular China and India – to take the lead in resolving the crisis as the European Union  and the U.S. push for expanded sanctions against Myanmar.

India, which has established deep economic and military ties with the junta over the last decade, says it’s talking quietly to its neighbor, an approach that has galled critics who argue New Delhi’s inaction makes it complicit in the brutal repression taking place in Myanmar.

“We feel that India should stop protecting and strengthening the military butchers of Burma,” said Thin Thin Aung of the Women’s League of Burma, while protesting recently outside the home of Sonia Gandhi, the head of India’s ruling Congress  party.

Protests in Myanmar began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices in one of Asia’s poorest countries. They were based in a deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military rule that has gripped the country, previously known as Burma, since 1962. The protests were faltering when Buddhist monks took the lead late last month.

China, which Gambari is expected to visit on Wednesday, has taken some action – Beijing is credited with pressuring Myanmar’s generals to meet with Gambari earlier in the month. India, however, has done little publicly. In fact, as the protests gathered steam last month, India’s petroleum minister, Murali Deora, was in Myanmar signing a $150 million gas exploration deal.

Apart from several mild statements expressing “concern” over the situation in Myanmar and suggestions that it would be “helpful” to release detained democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, India has said little else, even as pressure has grown on New Delhi to act.

India insists that quietly working behind the scenes is more effective.

“Violence and suppression of human rights is something that hurts us,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters last week on the way home from a visit to South Africa.

“Having said that, we have to recognize that Myanmar is our next door neighbor and sometimes it does not serve the objective you have in mind by going public with condemnations,” he said.

Critics dismiss India’s quiet diplomacy, saying New Delhi is simply loathe to give up access to Myanmar’s copious natural resources, such as timber and natural gas.

“As a democracy one expects more from India,” Brad Adams, the Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“We would like India to speak publicly. They do their diplomacy in private but there is no doubt that public diplomacy is necessary” said Adams, adding that India needs to make it clear to the junta that there will be consequences for its actions.

As India’s economy began to boom it became desperate to lay its hands on the energy resources necessary to fuel its rapid economic growth and provide power to its 1.1 billion people. Myanmar’s natural-gas reserves proved too tempting.

India has also been keen to secure the cooperation of the Myanmar military to help contain several separatist groups fighting New Delhi rule in India’s northeast, a region that borders Myanmar. Several of the groups have set up bases over the border used to launch attacks against India.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Indian actor Salman Khan says prison is like  hell

Posted: 2007-10-23 04:50:38

MUMBAI, India (AP) – Bollywood action hero Salman Khan says being in jail is like entering hell.

The actor is free on bail again pending a new appeal after being imprisoned twice over the past year for allegedly killing a rare buck in a western India wildlife preserve nine years ago.

“I entered there (prison) and saw prisoners who have been there for 20 years and totally forgotten, and it was like hell,” Khan told Mumbai-based DNA newspaper. “The state of the jail is so bad.”

India’s courts are notoriously slow and take decades to reach final verdicts.

Aid workers often complain that Indian prisons are filthy and infested with bugs and worms.

“I think some human rights guys should go there and check on these things,” said Khan. “It is horrible for humans to stay in such places.”

The actor said he was worried that negative media publicity might influence the court against him.

“It’s been going on for so long, that any time in my life if a weird story about me comes out or something happens to me, the judge will start thinking, ‘this guy deserves to be behind bars.’ Just that thought scares me,” he said.

Khan spent six days in prison in August after an appeals court in the northwestern city of Jodhpur upheld his conviction and sentence to five years jail by a trial court in the poaching case. Last year, he spent three nights in prison after his conviction.

Khan is also being tried for rash and negligent driving in 2002 after he allegedly killed a man and injured three others sleeping on a Mumbai sidewalk. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.

The actor says he is innocent in both cases.

Khan has starred in more than 70 movies over the past two decades. His recent movies include the romantic film “Marigold” and comic caper “Partner.”