Exiles from Burma on Friday criticized a visit to India next week by the head of Burma’s military government, saying it sends a wrong signal shortly after the generals replaced a more moderate prime minister with a hardline officer.
Sr-Gen Than Shwe starts a six-day visit on Sunday—the first to India by a Burmese leader in 24 years.
Relations between the military dictatorship and the world’s largest democracy have warmed over the past four years, reversing the strains of 1988, when Burma’s military rulers violently crushed a pro-democracy uprising.
“The visit will send a wrong signal to people of Burma and the international community, which supports democratic forces in Burma,” said Soe Myint, editor of the New Delhi-based Mizzima Internet news site, which publishes news about Burma.
Thi Law, a spokesman for the Students’ Youth Congress of Burma, said his group and other exile organizations would hold a rally in central New Delhi on Saturday to demonstrate support for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been in detention since an attack on her and her followers by a pro-government mob last year.
The Indian government said late Thursday it expects to sign agreements with Burma on cooperation in security, a hydroelectric project and cultural exchanges.
 The visit will send a wrong signal to people of Burma and the international community, which supports democratic forces in Burma. 
— Soe Myint, editor of the New Delhi-based Mizzima Internet news site |
Than Shwe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also will explore expanded cooperation in industry, energy, rail transportation, communications, science, technology and health, it said.
India is one of Burma’s major trading partners and is the second-largest market for Burmese goods, after Thailand. India and Burma have set a target of US $1 billion worth of trade by 2006.
The Times of India said Friday that New Delhi wants joint military operations to flush out armed rebels that India believes operate from Burma, crossing the 830-mile border.
A series of explosions and attacks killed more than 70 people this month in India’s northeastern states of Assam and Nagaland, near the Burmese border, where dozens of tribal-based militant outfits have fought for decades for independence or autonomy.
Than Shwe’s visit come days after former Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt—viewed as a relative moderate—was replaced by a hard-liner, Lt-Gen Soe Win.
