News from India (r)

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           NATIONAL COUNCIL OF  THE SAMATA PARTY
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29May,1997
Resolution on National Security:

The National Council of Samata Party draws the attention of
the  people of India  to the grave  threats to the nation's
security which seem to have escaped the notice of those who
should have known better.

India's  failure to prevent  China's military occupation of
Tibet  had not brought the  Chinese army to India's border,
but   had  emboldened  China   to  occupy  over  1,19,000sq
kilometres   of  India  territory  in  Jammu  and  Kashmir,
Himachal  Pradesh,  Uttar  Pradesh and  in the northeastern
region.   While it  engages India in  talks on  hat t calls
rectification of borders, China refuses to acknowledge that
Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are parts of Indian territory.
In the first week of April 1997,  China declined to issue a
visa  to the  chief minister  of Arunachal  pradesh to take
part  in  a  transnational  conference  on  environment  in
Kunming  in Yunnan  province of China.   Not satisfied with
this  insult  to  a  citizen  of  India,   Chinese  Embassy
officials  in Delhi suggested to the chief minister that he
could  proceed to  China without a  visa,  thereby implying
that China recognized him as its citizen, since it does not
accept Arunachal Pradesh as part of India.

In Burma, where Aung San Suu Kyi and her party-the National
League  for Democracy-had secured 80  per cent votes and 82
per  cent seats  in the  election held  in 1990,   China is
supporting   the  country's  military   junta  in  all  its
repressive measures to suppress the movement for democracy.
China  is  training and  equipping  the Burmese  army whose
strength has increased from 1,75,000men in 1994,to 4,50,000
and  is due to touch 5,00,000  by the turn of this century.
China   is  building  roads  and   railways  in  Burma  and
constructing military airports and naval facilities,  which
must  necessarily be  as a part  of its  design to encircle
India.

India's policy to "constructively engage"Burma,  by opening
two  overland  routes  for trade  with  that  country,  has
resulted  in massive smuggling of  Chinese goods into India
from  Moreh in Manipur.  These include cloth and ready made
garments,  all  types  of  electronic  goods,  Kitchenware,
cutlery  and crockery,  fountain pens  and pen knives,  and
other articles of domestic use.

The most dangerous development in the north-eastern part of
the  country is the unhindered smuggling of opium and other
drugs through the Moreh opening by the drug lords operating
in  Bruma.  TIME magazine in a two- page story in its issue
of  21 December 1996,  on opium smuggling via Moreh through
India  to the rest of the world,  assessed the value of the
contraband so smuggled at Rs. One lakh crore.

Along  with drug smuggling,  the  border opening has become
the  road to  export AIDS  into India.   Consequently,  the
number  of people afflicted by AIDS has reached frightening
proportions  in Manipur,  making the state the virtual AIDS
capital of the world.

Many of the insurgencies in the north eastern part of India
are  financed with drug money,  even while several militant
outfits and the women's organisations in Manipur,  Nagaland
and  Mizoram are engaged in an unrelenting war against drug
addiction  and AIDS.  The  consequences of all  this to the
nation's security in the north eastern part of India cannot
be overstated.

China  is engaged  in the construction  of a  naval base at
Coco Islands, which is Burmese territory only 40 kilometres
north  of the northern tip of the Andamans.  That this is a
part  of its  plan to establish  its naval  presence in the
Indian  Ocean and in the Bay  of Bengal and the Arabian Sea
does not need any emphasising.

Over  the years,  it has been  apart of China's strategy to
fan  tensions  between  India and  Pakistan,   by providing
sophisticated  weapons to Pakistan  and scuttling moves for
dialogue between India and pakistan.

In  the  civil war  situation now  prevailing in  Sri Lanka
where  the Tamils are fighting  to uphold their dignity and
their  democratic  rights,   and against  the  second class
status  imposed through  constitutional provision  on their
language and religion, China, the United States, Israel and
Pkistan  have  found  fertile  ground  to  establish  their
influence  by helping  the Sri Lankan  government to pursue
its  war against the Tamil people.  The U.S is putting up a
radio  and television station on Sri Lankan soil across the
creek  from  Rameshwaram in  Tamil  Nadu;  the  Chinese are
seeking  naval facilities  in the  trincomale harbour;  the
Israelis and Pakistan alongwith the Americans are providing
military  and indelogical training to  the Sri Lankan army.
India's silence over the assault on the human rights of the
Tamil  people  and  its failure  to  facilitate  a dialogue
between  the Tamils and Sinhalese  has isolated it not only
from the Tamils but even from those sections of the Sinhala
people  who are committed  to human rights  and are seeding
ways  to  restore  peace  to  their  strife-  torn country.

In  short,  India  is,  for all  practical purposes,  today
encircled on all sides. Any discussion on national security
that  overlooks these  realities will  only encourage those
who do not wish well by India.

The  Samata  Party believes  that  the nation  needs  to be
alerted to these dangers through a revival of the patriotic
fervour  that  motivated the  generations  which sacrificed
their everything, including their lives, in the struggle to
secure  freedom from colonial rule.  Towards this end,  the
National Council resolves;

1.  That the party workers undertake a year long village to
village  campaign to educate  the people of  the dangers to
our freedom and security;

2.   That the party units organise conventions at state and
district  levels to express solidarity  with and support to
His  Holiness.  The  Dalai Lama  and the  Tibetan people in
their  struggle  for  securing  their  freedom  from China;

3.   That the party units organism conventions at state and
district  levels to express solidarity  with and support to
Aung  San Suu Kyi and the  Burmese people in their struggle
for   the   restorationof  democracy   in   their  country;

4.   That  the party  units and  party members  will remind
members  of parliament of the unanimous pledge taken by the
members  of parliament in 1962 that we shall not rest quiet
till we have recovered every inch of our territory forcibly
held by China;

5.   That  the party  organise  an indefinite  and peaceful
blockade  from 2 October 1997 at  More in Manipur through a
human  wall at the international  border with Burma to draw
the  attention  of  the country  and  of the  world  to the
situation  prevailing in  Burma and the  Implication of the
massive  drug trade that  goes via More  through India with
the connivance of the Burmese military junta;

6.   That the party  organism a national-level conventionon
dangers   to  national   security,   followed   by  similar
conventions at the state level; and

7.   That  the  party  take the  support  of  all patriotic
Indians,   irrespective of  their political  loyalties,  in
these activities.

     News and Information Bureau All Burma Students League.

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