According to Alexander Downer, Australian diplomats think the death toll from the military crackdown on the Burmese protests is “much higher than has been reported so far, and could be in the hundreds.”
One thing I find rather perplexing about this is the Indian reaction, which seems to be a big fat nothing – both from the government and public if the lack of interest from the Times of India is indicative. The one op-ed I dug up suggests there’s a big element of India-China power games in the official disinterest in putting more pressure on the Burmese regime, with the implied subtext that the Burmese people’s rights don’t come very high up the priority list.
You’d expect China to prop up nasty regimes busily killing their own citizens if it’s in their geopolitical interest to do so. But you’d think India, a country proud of its role as the “world’s largest democracy”, and one of the region’s economic and military superpowers to show a teeny bit more principle than that.
Also Robert, India has a large amount of financial interests in the gas and lumber reserves of Burma. The country has given the regime millions of dollars for this, which is also why China and Russia are silent.
Amnesty International has a petition on line to go to the UN. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to link it, but if you Google it should be easy enough to find.
Robert Merkel:
At last! An issue to take Iraq off the front page.
[No. I won't go for conspiracy theories that Bush organized it; local concerns about price rises were sufficient to start any protest - and the presence of local dissidents sufficient to keep it going].
The whole show has given China some unexpected opportunitiies though.
Yes you would expect Marxist-Leninist ‘sacred monsters’ like China and Vietnam to prop up this evil anti-democrat, and even ‘anti-reality’ regime. India’s record , as a state, is not good either but I wouldn’t judge India as a whole by the ‘Times of India’, The Soviet loving and nepotistic Congress party, the National-Socialist BJP or any of the various ‘Market-Leninist’ state governments either.
Let alone the Naxalites.
India is a big place and still worth defending ,as a democracy ,against either the last Empire or anyone else really. Australia could have a lot worse trading partners and friends. In fact we already do.
Imho red fascist China is worse than India for all it’s flaws. Plus we don’t have flaws!
We are not even a democracy!
I wonder if there is an issue with India’s northeast states and the problem posed by a civilian uprising in Burma. Western tourists are still excluded from visiting these ethnically distinct states plus the Andaman and Nicobar Island groups that are close to Burma. Remember the 1994 Tsunami.
Sure you can apply for a permit if you can wait for the Indian bureaucracy to respond. Doesn’t excuse the response from Delhi and the two countries have some shared colonial history that should be influencing the powers that be in the Congress Party.
India signed gas deals with Burma in March 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4791078.stm
It is suspected that mining contracts was one reason for the rise in fuel prices.
Regarding India’s northeast states, I don’t think that this would have a direct impact on its attitude to Burma, although it could be said that both nations have trouble controlling their peripheral territories. Mind you, that wouldn’t explain Australia’s training of Burmese military in ‘anti-terrorism’ (anti-separatism/ethnic cleansing), which is a total disgrace and really makes Downer and Howard’s statements sound pretty hollow.
Regarding China, (I will ignore the above rhetoric), there are direct economic reasons why the government has an interest in keeping the Burmese military in charge. They include gas, hardwood, and a conduit to southeast Asia and India. There are also a lot of small scale Chinese business interests in Burma. In Mandalay I heard the complaint that Burmese were being moved out of the centre of the city to make way for Chinese immigrants. Don’t know how seriously this can be taken though.
Bilko, an Australian company’s also got a deal with Burma.
[link]
Harold Clough
Liberal links.
Dare I suggest that, given the history of Burma since 1962, nobody in power actually gives a shit?
The Boston Globe has a neat summary in it’s editorial of the both the Chinese and Indian involvement:
There’s an article in Der Spiegel which confirms the Boston Globe take on the issue. It emphasises the war games, the rivalry between China and India.
The article confirms what I’ve been hearing in various reports on the BBC, namely that China is the only power with enough contact and purchase to have any effect. Chinese efforts, however, seem to be directed towards maintaining the status quo and papering over the cracks. There seems to have been some Chinese arm-twisting to make sure the UN emissary gets to talk to a few people, but that’s basically PR.