Burma-Pak-China nexus feared

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Burma-Pak-China nexus feared

The Asian Age (New Delhi)
November 16, 2000

By Rahul Bedi

New Delhi, Nov. 15: The government?s enthusiasm surrounding the official
visit by Burma?s high-powered military delegation to New Delhi appears
to be a delayed attempt at countering well-established defence and
strategic links between Rangoon and both Beijing and Islamabad. The
Burmese delegation arrives to a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati
Bhavan on Friday. They will be received by Union home minister L.K.
Advani and former Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ed Prakash Malik, who visited
Burma in July as part of New Delhi?s belated strategy of forging closer
links with Burma?s military junta.

?India has long ignored China and Pakistan?s growing influence with
Burma?s military government at its peril and it may now be too late to
supersede it,? a senior military official said. Pakistan and close
military ally China, he added, were among the handful of countries which
had disregarded international opinion and forged close military ties
with Rangoon?s State Law and Order Restoration Council created in 1988,
cleverly complementing their strategy of encircling India. China is
helping Burma modernize its naval bases at Hainggyi, the Cocos Islands,
Akyab and Mergui by building radar, refit and refuel facilities that
could support Chinese submarine operations in the region. The Chinese
are also believed to be establishing a signals intelligence facility on
the Cocos Islands, 30 nautical mines from the Andaman Islands,
reportedly to monitor Indian missile tests off the Orissa coast, an
activity that has proliferated after the 1998 nuclear tests. Defence
minister George Fernandes has declared the Hianggyi base a joint
Sino-Burmese naval establishment and that the Cocos Islands had been
?loaned? to Beijing. China is also reportedly training Burmese naval
intelligence officials and helping Rangoon execute surveys of its
coastline contiguous to India.

Indian fears over Beijing?s ambitions in the Indian Ocean region gained
credence in 1994 after the Coast Guard detained three Chinese trawlers
with Burmese flags that were equipped with sophisticated tracking and
surveying equipment and arrested the crews for spying. Dedpite the
Navy?s protests, bolstered by the security agencies, the crew were
released by the government a few months later under pressure form
Beijing ahead of the annual meeting of the symbolic Sino-Indian Joint
Working Group to work out unresolved territorial disputes.

Chinese ambitions in the Indian Ocean region have led to India wanting
to raise the Navy?s fourth command on the Andamans headquartered at Port
Blair. The plan, shelved due to a resource crunch and reluctance to
annoy Beijing, envisaged upgraded surveillance stations across the
750-km Andaman and Nicobar archipelago of 309 islands spanning 8,250 km
which is 1,200 km from the Indian mainland but contiguous to the
worrisome Chinese presence in Burma. ?Till now China has been a land
neighbour, but through Burma it may soon become our maritime neighbour,?
a naval officer said. Such moves by Beijing of encircling India merit
serious attention, he said.

Pakistan, on the other hand, had been circumspect in fostering defence
ties with Burma, quietly supplying it several shiploads of ordnance and
other military hardware, like 106 mm M40 recoilless rifles and various
small arms over the past decade. It also regularly trains Burmese
soldiers to operate a slew of Chinese equipment like tanks, fighter
aircraft and howitzers. According to William Ashton writing in Jane?s
Intelligence Review, Burmese military officers are at present attending
Pakistan?s Military Staff College at Quetta while others are reportedly
undergoing training to operate 155 mm howitzers and tanks like the
T-69s, T-63s and T-53s Rangoon recently acquired from China. Pakistan is
also believed to be training Burmese Air Force officers to operate the
two-seater Karakoram 8 (K8) jet trainers, which can couble as ground
attack aircraft. Burma has acquired 14 of them since 1998. While the K8s
are built in China, Islamabad has a 25 per cent interest in the project,
thereby complementing Pakistan?s level of involvement in Burma?s overall
defence establishment. The Burmese Air Force also has a proliferating
fleet of Chinese F7 interceptors and A5 ground attack craft which
Pakistan too operates. Burmese naval officers too are reportedly
undergoing training at Pakistani naval establishments. Ashton reveals
that Pakistani military cooperation with Burma began in January 1989,
shortly after the junta came to power. Senior Pakistani defence
officials arrived in Rangoon hawking weaponry after which Burmese
defence officials, led by their Air Force chief, Major General Tin Tun,
visited Islamabad and reportedly bought machine guns, 50,000 rounds of
ammunition and 5,000 120 mm mortars. Shipments to Burma of rocket
launchers, assault rifles and ammunition worth around $20 million,
diverted by the ISI from the arms cache supplied by the US to the
Mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation, followed. Weapon sales to
Rangoon ceased under then Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who
was sympathetic to Aung San Suu Kyi, but resumed under her successor
Nawaz Sharif.

?Over the past decade additional reports have surfaced that the armed
forces and defence industries of Pakistan and Myanmar have developed a
close working relationship,? writes Ashton. Last year the SLORC?s
successor, the State Peace and Development Council, he declares,
purchased two shiploads of ammunition from Pakistani ordnance factories
reportedly valued at $3.2 million.

This included ammunition for 7.62 mm machine guns, including 77 mm
rifle-launched grenades; 76 mm, 82 mm and 106 mm recoilless rifle
rounds; 120 mm mortar bombs; 37 mm anti-aircraft gun ammunition and 105
mm and 155 mm artillery shells.

?Pakistan?s offer of assistance to the SLORC in early 1989 was clearly
an opportunistic move to take advantage of Myanmar?s straitened
circumstances and to outflank India, which under Rajiv Gandhi strongly
supported Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burma pro-democracy movement,? writes
Ashton.



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<html>
<b><font size=+2>Burma-Pak-China nexus feared</font></b>
<p>The Asian Age (New Delhi)
<br>November 16, 2000
<p>By Rahul Bedi
<p>New Delhi, Nov. 15: The government?s enthusiasm surrounding the official
visit by Burma?s high-powered military delegation to New Delhi appears
to be a delayed attempt at countering well-established defence and strategic
links between Rangoon and both Beijing and Islamabad. The Burmese delegation
arrives to a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. They
will be received by Union home minister L.K. Advani and former Chief of
Army Staff Gen. Ed Prakash Malik, who visited Burma in July as part of
New Delhi?s belated strategy of forging closer links with Burma?s military
junta.
<p>?India has long ignored China and Pakistan?s growing influence with
Burma?s military government at its peril and it may now be too late to
supersede it,? a senior military official said. Pakistan and close military
ally China, he added, were among the handful of countries which had disregarded
international opinion and forged close military ties with Rangoon?s State
Law and Order Restoration Council created in 1988, cleverly complementing
their strategy of encircling India. China is helping Burma modernize its
naval bases at Hainggyi, the Cocos Islands, Akyab and Mergui by building
radar, refit and refuel facilities that could support Chinese submarine
operations in the region. The Chinese are also believed to be establishing
a signals intelligence facility on the Cocos Islands, 30 nautical mines
from the Andaman Islands, reportedly to monitor Indian missile tests off
the Orissa coast, an activity that has proliferated after the 1998 nuclear
tests. Defence minister George Fernandes has declared the Hianggyi base
a joint Sino-Burmese naval establishment and that the Cocos Islands had
been ?loaned? to Beijing. China is also reportedly training Burmese naval
intelligence officials and helping Rangoon execute surveys of its coastline
contiguous to India.
<p>Indian fears over Beijing?s ambitions in the Indian Ocean region gained
credence in 1994 after the Coast Guard detained three Chinese trawlers
with Burmese flags that were equipped with sophisticated tracking and surveying
equipment and arrested the crews for spying. Dedpite the Navy?s protests,
bolstered by the security agencies, the crew were released by the government
a few months later under pressure form Beijing ahead of the annual meeting
of the symbolic Sino-Indian Joint Working Group to work out unresolved
territorial disputes.
<p>Chinese ambitions in the Indian Ocean region have led to India wanting
to raise the Navy?s fourth command on the Andamans headquartered at Port
Blair. The plan, shelved due to a resource crunch and reluctance to annoy
Beijing, envisaged upgraded surveillance stations across the 750-km Andaman
and Nicobar archipelago of 309 islands spanning 8,250 km which is 1,200
km from the Indian mainland but contiguous to the worrisome Chinese presence
in Burma. ?Till now China has been a land neighbour, but through Burma
it may soon become our maritime neighbour,? a naval officer said. Such
moves by Beijing of encircling India merit serious attention, he said.
<p>Pakistan, on the other hand, had been circumspect in fostering defence
ties with Burma, quietly supplying it several shiploads of ordnance and
other military hardware, like 106 mm M40 recoilless rifles and various
small arms over the past decade. It also regularly trains Burmese soldiers
to operate a slew of Chinese equipment like tanks, fighter aircraft and
howitzers. According to William Ashton writing in Jane?s Intelligence Review,
Burmese military officers are at present attending Pakistan?s Military
Staff College at Quetta while others are reportedly undergoing training
to operate 155 mm howitzers and tanks like the T-69s, T-63s and T-53s Rangoon
recently acquired from China. Pakistan is also believed to be training
Burmese Air Force officers to operate the two-seater Karakoram 8 (K8) jet
trainers, which can couble as ground attack aircraft. Burma has acquired
14 of them since 1998. While the K8s are built in China, Islamabad has
a 25 per cent interest in the project, thereby complementing Pakistan?s
level of involvement in Burma?s overall defence establishment. The Burmese
Air Force also has a proliferating fleet of Chinese F7 interceptors and
A5 ground attack craft which Pakistan too operates. Burmese naval officers
too are reportedly undergoing training at Pakistani naval establishments.
Ashton reveals that Pakistani military cooperation with Burma began in
January 1989, shortly after the junta came to power. Senior Pakistani defence
officials arrived in Rangoon hawking weaponry after which Burmese defence
officials, led by their Air Force chief, Major General Tin Tun, visited
Islamabad and reportedly bought machine guns, 50,000 rounds of ammunition
and 5,000 120 mm mortars. Shipments to Burma of rocket launchers, assault
rifles and ammunition worth around $20 million, diverted by the ISI from
the arms cache supplied by the US to the Mujahideen fighting the Soviet
occupation, followed. Weapon sales to Rangoon ceased under then Pakistan
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was sympathetic to Aung San Suu Kyi,
but resumed under her successor Nawaz Sharif.
<p>?Over the past decade additional reports have surfaced that the armed
forces and defence industries of Pakistan and Myanmar have developed a
close working relationship,? writes Ashton. Last year the SLORC?s successor,
the State Peace and Development Council, he declares, purchased two shiploads
of ammunition from Pakistani ordnance factories reportedly valued at $3.2
million.
<p>This included ammunition for 7.62 mm machine guns, including 77 mm rifle-launched
grenades; 76 mm, 82 mm and 106 mm recoilless rifle rounds; 120 mm mortar
bombs; 37 mm anti-aircraft gun ammunition and 105 mm and 155 mm artillery
shells.
<p>?Pakistan?s offer of assistance to the SLORC in early 1989 was clearly
an opportunistic move to take advantage of Myanmar?s straitened circumstances
and to outflank India, which under Rajiv Gandhi strongly supported Aung
San Suu Kyi and the Burma pro-democracy movement,? writes Ashton.
<p>&nbsp;</html>

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