Mizzima: Burmese exiled government

[mizzima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Burmese exiled government supports India?s stand in the NAM

New Delhi, April 10, 2000
Mizzima News Group

Indian Foreign Minister might have mainly aimed at Pakistan when he made
a proposal at the on-going NAM conference in Colombia yesterday that the
Non-Aligned Movement should keep military junta states out of it.
However, he gets support from an unexpected quarter i.e. from Burmese
dissidents struggling for democracy in Burma, India?s another neighbour
which has been under the military rule for more than a decade.

Dr. Tint Swe, South Asian Affairs Minister of the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said today that he welcomes
Jaswant Singh?s proposal and that there should be no place for
dictatorial regimes in the international groupings including in the
United Nations.

?I think Jaswant Singh?s suggestion is very important. His comment on
the need for the NAM to commit itself to the rules of law and democracy
is in conformity with the wish of international community. His
suggestion has supported the democratic movement in Burma. In the NAM,
apart from Pakistan, Burma and Ivory Coast are the two member states
where military is ruling. If the members of NAM agree to Jaswant Singh?s
proposal, there is a possibility that the military regime in Burma will
have no place in the international community. His proposal will
definitely support for the democratic movement in Burma?, said Dr. Tint
Swe.

Burma, which left Non-Aligned Movement in 1979 during the Summit in
Havana, re-entered into the NAM at its Summit in Jakarta in September
1992 and India supported Burma?s re-entry.

Former Indian Foreign Secretary of India Mr. Muchkundube also extends
his support to Jaswant Singh?s suggestion and said that as India is a
democratic country, it should not support the military regimes.

However, another Indian Former Foreign Secretary does not agree with Mr.
Jawant Singh.

Mr. J.N. Dixit, who was Foreign Secretary of India from 1991 to 1994,
said that Jawant Singh should not have passed judgement on governments
of other countries in the NAM conference.

When asked his comment on Jaswant Singh?s proposal at the NAM meeting,
Mr. Dixit said: ?Mainly he would have been aimed at Pakistan. In fact, I
don?t think Indian foreign minister should have talked about the
governments in other countries. He should have just done what is
necessary for the Non-Aligned Movement. Why should he pass judgement on
governments of other countries?

?Our relations with Myanmar is very important and the government on
Myanmar is what the people of Myanmar to decide? Political reality has
to be accepted and you have to deal with political reality? It is enough
that India continues our democracy instead of trying to tell the rest of
the world what it should do,? added Mr. Dixit, who was instrumental in
formulating the present India?s policy towards Burma.

India is at present in ?working relationship? with the military junta in
Burma and the two governments are cooperating in many fields including
countering insurgency in the border, checking narcotics smuggling across
the border, sharing of intelligence on real time basis, bilateral trade
and investment.