India should shun the Generals of Burma

Courting the junta

Hiranmay Karlekar
http://www.dailypioneer.com/273925/Courting-the-junta.html


In November 2009, India opposed a resolution on Burma’s human rights violations in the United Nations General Assembly. So did China, North Korea, Libya, Iran, Zimbabwe and Belarus. If any of these countries is celebrated for the vibrancy of its democracy or the intensity of its commitment to human rights, then it is as closely guarded a secret as any embarrassment that India might have felt for being in such exclusive company. Judging, however, by its record of fawning over the Burmese junta, it must have felt proud and not embarrassed. That this was so, tends to be further indicated by the warm welcome it extended to Gen Than Shwe during his ‘religious-cum-official’ visit to this country from July 25 to 29.

The General is Burma’s President and the head of the country’s State Peace and Development Council, which, in turn, is a reincarnation of the State Law and Order Restoration Council. The SPDC is, as the SLORC was, the principal striking arm of one of the most obnoxious dictatorships the world has seen. The junta that spawned both has been brutally suppressing Burma’s movement for democracy ever since it defenestrated the result of the May 27, 1990 parliamentary election, in which the National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won more than 80 per cent of the seats.

The junta has been accused, and not without basis, of war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law including the use of child soldiers, the destruction of villages, the displacement of ethnic minorities, the use of rape as a weapon of war, extra-judicial killings, forced relocation and forced labour. Its persecution of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under detention for 14 of the last 20 years, requires no elaboration. Three years ago, it ordered a crackdown on peaceful protests which were joined by Buddhist monks who were ruthlessly subjected to torture, imprisonment and murder. In a supremely ironical act, Gen Than Shwe started his tour of India with a visit to Bodh Gaya and the Sarnath Temple!

Nor is there any indication that the junta will change. The election, expected later this year, is scripted to be a sham. A farcical referendum has approved the Constitution of 2008, under which the election is to be held. It puts the military above the law and gives the armed forces’ commander-in-chief the right to appoint members to 25 per cent of the seats in both Houses of the Burmese Parliament. More, the SPDC has enacted five draconian laws which give the junta absolute control over the election process, and bar political prisoners, including Daw Suu Kyi, from contesting. Even campaigning is going to be restricted. On June 21, Burma’s Election Commission prohibited political parties from campaigning in a manner that “harms security, the rule of law and community peace”. While the reference to “rule of law” sounds like an exercise in black humour by a junta that respects neither legality nor humanity, those familiar with its ways, know what precisely the EC’s directive means. Understandably the NLD has refused to contest the election without a change in the electoral laws.

Why is India courting the junta? The standard answer is realpolitik related to countering China’s penetration of Burma, ensuring Burma’s cooperation against the rebels in north-eastern India, promoting economic cooperation with Burma, particularly in the energy sector, and implementing India’s new ‘Look East’ policy which demands good relations with Burma through which land routes to countries East and South-East Asia, run.

Unfortunately, the junta is playing India and China against each other to serve its own ends. Also, New Delhi will be hard put to catch up with Beijing which has established extensive ties with Rangoon. On the economic front, Burma is receiving more than it is giving. Unlike Bangladesh, which has cracked down hard on India’s rebels on its soil, driving some of their leaders into India’s custody, there is little tangible evidence of Burmese action against them. Clearly, India’s Burma policy is unlikely to have the intended results and is more likely to strengthen an obnoxious dictatorship besides selling Burma’s democracy movement down the river.