By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jun 21 2003 (IPS)

India’s uncharacteristically muted response to the renewed incarceration of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been prompted by the country’s own problems with insurgent groups that thrive in its north-eastern states near Burma, say observers here.

”India has been bogged down with long-standing insurgency problems in its north-eastern states, which it hopes to check with support from the military government in Yangon,” Ganganath Jha, an expert on Burma and professor at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), told IPS.

According to Jha, India’s earlier policy of vocally supporting democracy in Burma has driven the Burmese generals to seek ever more support from the country’s other large and powerful neighbour China and, in return, allowing Beijing military facilities in its territory.

”There is a realisation that the region is very volatile and that India can achieve more by extending support to initiatives made by ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations) than by acting on its own,” Jha said.

Recently, India’s former foreign secretary and the architect of India’s policy of engagement with the Burmese generals, J N Dixit, commented that while India should be ”passionate with our own democracy”, it should not ”take the mission” to other countries.

This has drawn protests from the large Burmese exile community in India that is carrying on the struggle for democracy in their homeland. ”Non-existence of democracy next door is a threat to India’s own democracy,” commented the New Delhi-based Soe Myint, editor of the ‘Mizzima News’ website specialising on Burma.

Soe Myint, who is facing trial in Calcutta for hijacking a Rangoon-bound Thai Airways airliner 14 years ago to draw attention to the suppression of freedom in Burma, told IPS that he appreciated India’s problems with its insurgencies and with rival China – but not how these were being dealt with.

”What is happening is that the Burmese government is playing its cards well by pretending to crack down on insurgents in the north-east and by playing off one country off against the other (India against China),” Soe Myint said.

Referring to a visit in January by Burmese Foreign Minister U Wing Aung – the first by a high Burmese official to India in 5 years – Soe Myint said the military regime was taking care to balance it with simultaneous visits by its high officials to Beijing.

Aung’s visit was marked by agreements to develop road and port facilities, hydroelectric power projects, joint exploration of offshore and inland petroleum and gas resources and also boost defence relations.

Under its ‘Look East’ plan, India is already helping to build a trilateral road link connecting its north-eastern states all the way to Thailand and helping its neighbour build a port at Sittwe.

According to Indian officials, who asked not to be named, Rangoon has been cracking down on the insurgency in India’s north-east. This, they said, has helped immensely in bringing the main factions of the armed Naga rebel group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) led by Isak Muivah, to the negotiating table.

A smaller but important faction of the NSCN, which is committed to the creation of a ‘Nagalim’ or homeland for the Naga tribes that is carved out of Indian and Burmese territory is said to be continuing to maintain camps in Burmese territory.

The Indo-Burmese border stretches for nearly 1,700 kilometres of heavily forested area. It is home to various ethnic groups such as the Nagas, Kukis and Mizos, who straddle both sides of the border and have been in serious conflict with the Indian government at various times over the past half century.

India and Burma carry on a border trade mostly between the Indian town of Moreh and Tamu, its Burmese counterpart and includes engineering goods, machinery and pharmaceuticals. But large amounts of heroin are also carried across the border form Burma into the Indian state of Manipur, for onward movement to destinations in the West.

Soe Myint felt that it was not enough for India to be satisfied with small-time trade or merely tagging along behind ASEAN. New Delhi should instead be playing a more pro-active role in Burma’s democratisation process because of its size, reach and influence, he argued.

”Right now the situation is that Burmese government’s claims to legitimacy rest partly on the ground that it can claim to have the support of both China and India – two of the world’s largest countries,” Soe Myint pointed out.

The political opposition in India has called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi, who Burma’s military rulers say is being held under ‘protective custody’ after a violent attack May 30 on her and her supporters, said to have been instigated by pro-government groups.

These opposition groups are led by the Congress party and the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M). Important constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) such as the Samata Party have joined the calls for Suu Kyi’s release, also made by ASEAN this week.

But Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party has made no comment on the incarceration of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who went to school and college in India and has many personal friends in New Delhi.

Officially, the Indian government has resorted to ‘diplomatese’ – saying only that it has been ”watching very closely with concern the recent developments in Myanmar.”

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