ARTICLE
India and Burma: Working on their relationship
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MARCH, 1999 - VOLUME 7 NO.3
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Soe Myint examines the evolution of Indo-Burmese relations since the pro-democracy uprisings of 1988, and considers what the push for a "working relationship" may mean for activists in exile.
Indian Foreign Secretary Mr K. Raghunath’s recent visit to Burma is further evidence that India and Burma are re-entering a "working relationship". The visit was the first by an Indian Foreign Secretary since Mr J.N. Dixit visited Rangoon six years ago. The two sides reportedly agreed to enhance state-to-state cooperation and contacts in various fields including trade and security along the two country’s border.
India and Burma have traditionally had a very close relationship due to their historical, cultural and administrative ties. Buddhism came from India to Burma and established abiding cultural ties between the people of the two countries. During the freedom struggle against colonial rule, the national leaders of the two countries developed close political links which survived for years after independence. Nehru and U Nu shared a common world view and India helped in many ways when the newly independent Burma was in crisis. India extended military assistance to U Nu, in fact saving his "Rangoon Government" from falling to insurgents. Even after General Ne Win seized power in 1962, the relationship between the two countries remained positive.
However, the pro-democracy uprising in 1988 and the junta’s subsequent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators marked a turning point in Indo-Burma relations. India was the only neighboring country to clearly and openly stand on the side of democratic forces in Burma at that time. The Prime Minister at the time, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, clearly stated in 1988 that India must strengthen the aspirations of the people of Burma for democracy. When student activists fled to India for shelter after the military takeover in September 1988, India willingly accepted them. The then External Affairs Minister (later Prime Minister) Mr Narasimha Rao informed a parliamentary panel that strict orders had been given not to turn back any genuine Burmese refugees seeking shelter in India.
Naturally, India’s support of the pro-democracy movement in Burma caused strains in official ties between the two countries. In 1992, however, both countries decided to mend some fences in their relationship. Former Indian Foreign Secretary Mr J.N. Dixit and U Aye, a senior official of the Burmese Foreign Ministry, were the two pioneers in regularizing bilateral ties. U Aye’s visit to New Delhi in August 1992 was the first by a junta official since 1988. Mr J.N. Dixit paid an official visit to Burma in March 1993. The following year, Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister U Nyunt Swe made a six-day official visit to India, during which he held a series of meetings with Indian officials and discussed wide-ranging issues to improve the bilateral relationship.
On January 21, 1994, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to increase cooperation between the civilian border authorities of the two countries to prevent "illegal and insurgent activities". A further bilateral agreement was signed to regularize and promote border trade, which officially resumed on April 12, 1995.
Since that time, the two countries have maintained contact through formal and informal visits and exchanges of intelligence between border officials. India is currently building a highway to link its National Highway 39, which connects mainland India and its northeastern states, to the road network in Burma. The road is scheduled for completion in the year 2000. And both countries are working on plans to jointly explore nickel and coal deposits in Burma. India has reportedly become Burma’s largest export market, accounting for 23 per cent of its total export.
One may ask why India decided to normalize the relationship with Burma, a complete reversal of its long-standing commitment to democracy in that country. According to some observers of Indian foreign policy, three major factors contributed to India’s decision to pursue a "working relationship" with the Burmese junta: the presence of Indians in Burma; insurgency problems in northeastern India; and China’s growing influence in Burma.
It is estimated that there are presently about one million Indians living in Burma, out of a total population of 47 million. By 1972, some 200,000 people of Indian origin had been forced out of the country as a result of the economy’s nationalization by Ne Win’s "socialist" government. Their wholesale and retail businesses were taken away from them without compensation and they were given 175 kyat each to return to India. Many Indian businessmen still in Burma hope that better relations between the two countries will guarantee their economic security. Both they and Burmese of Indian origin now settled in India have been partly behind the push for improved ties.
Another factor, of greater concern to India, is the insurgency in the northeastern part of the country, which shares a thousand kilometer long border with Burma. Although the Burmese government denies giving the rebels any form of support, it is well-known that many Indian insurgent groups have found a safe haven in Burma. Naga insurgent groups from India have long had bases in remote areas of upper Sagaing Division of Burma, and officials from the northeastern state of Assam claimed last October that militants from the United Liberation Front of Assam have also been taking shelter in Burma. It is also a known fact that arms and ammunition for these groups come from and through Burma. The Indian government is thus understandably anxious to get cooperation from Burmese authorities to "contain" the insurgency in northeast.
The third factor that explains Indian policy makers’ moves to form closer ties with Burma is China’s growing influence on the country, both politically and economically. China exported US$ 1.4 billion worth of military equipment to Burma by the beginning of 1993, including light and medium tanks, APCs, F-7 jet fighters, Hainan class patrol vessels, arms and ammunition. In June 1998, Indian Defence Minister Mr George Fernandes informed the Indian Parliament that China has been assisting Burma in installing surveillance and communication systems on some of its islands in the Bay of Bengal. Rangoon has denied that it has any military pact or understanding with Beijing.
Policymakers in New Delhi also worry that the influx of cheap Chinese goods through Burma to northeastern India will undermine India’s national commercial interests.
But not everyone in India shares the views of the country’s political pundits. Mr Deenadayalan, head of an Indian nongovernmental organization in Delhi, expressed anger over the current government’s policy on Burma. He said, "We know that any state for the matter for its own survival has used many bogeys and many excuses. And the China bogey is another bogey that the India government is using. We always say that we need to find political solutions to the problems of the northeast insurgency. Because these are political issues. We cannot think in terms of military intervention and military solution to a political issue."
"If the relationship between the two countries is going to benefit the majority of people in Burma and India, I support it. If it does not, I oppose the growing relationship between the two countries," said Mr C.P. Prabakar who worked for the Burmese Language Service of All India Radio from 1966 to 1992.
The dilemma Indian policy makers face and will continue to face is that there is widespread support and sympathy for Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese pro-democracy movement in India. This is evident from the fact that India conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Peace Award for International Understanding upon Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995. On August 8, 1998, at a joint meeting in New Delhi to mark the tenth anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising, six major Indian political parties reaffirmed their support for the pro-democracy movement in Burma. Seventy-five Members of Parliament from various political parties signed a petition supporting the NLD’s call to convene the elected parliament in Burma.
Mr V. P. Dutt, a well-known Indian foreign policy commentator, in his recently published book "India’s Foreign Policy in a Changing World," remarked that "India’s dilemma was obvious. The general sympathy was with the movement for democracy . . . On the other hand, the military regime seemed to be firmly in the saddle. An influential section in the foreign establishment believed that there were many important issues that needed continual sorting out and that India must have normal relations with whosoever was in power in Burma . . . In fact this became the general thrust of India’s Burma policy."
However, Dr. Tint Swe, South Asian Affairs Minister of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), rejected the notion of the "military government being in firm control" in the country. "The people are with democracy and the National League for Democracy. They are waiting for the right opportunity. Burmese people have shown on many occasions in the past like the 8-8-88 movement or the 1990 elections that they revolted wholeheartedly when there was a right opportunity."
The growing relationship between Burma and India is a source of worry to Burmese pro-democracy activists based in India. In 1997, 11 Burmese army defectors who joined with pro-democracy groups based on the Indo-Burma border were secretly deported by Indian military intelligence agents. A Burmese student activist who was a UNHCR-recognized refugee was also included in the deportation.
Last February, six guerillas were killed and seventy-three arrested in an Indian military operation, code named "Operation Leech," targeting the Arakan Army and the Karen National Union, both of which are struggling against the junta in Burma.
When Burmese pro-democracy activists tried to organize a political conference on Burma in January this year, the venue, the Constitution Club in New Delhi, cancelled at the last minute without explanation.
However, Indian Foreign Minister Mr Jaswant Singh told Burmese pro-democracy activists at a Global Conference on Democracy, held in New Delhi in February, that India is committed to protecting their security and freedom.
But the strength of this commitment can only be tested over time, as it faces resistance from a growing lobby in India striving to establish a "working relationship" with the government in Burma.
Soe Myint, a freelance journalist based in New Delhi, contributed this article to the Irrawaddy.
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