[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Letters to Editor: US Body will fun
--------------9DF6D6AC7BC28EA363A563C9
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Letters to Editor:
US Body will fund Burma, Tibet resistance from Delhi
Asian Age newspaper, February 25, 2001
Sir, The news item US body will fund Burma, Tibet resistance from
Delhi (The Asian Age, Feb. 13) concerning the purported activities of
the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in India is so riddled with
inaccuracy that it cries out for a response. The article begins by
saying NED ?has been cleared? to set up an office in India. In fact NED
has always had one office, located in Washington DC, United States, and
has no intention of establishing another in India or anywhere else. As
reported in the Indian press last year, the Endowment, a bipartisan
foundation supported by the US Congress that promotes democracy and
human rights has begun a joint project with the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) to explore ways to help governing institutions in Asia?s
democracies become more effective. The inaugural conference of the Asian
Centre for Democratic Governance held in New Delhi last month, was
attended by academicians, officeholders, corporate managers, journalists
and representatives from over a dozen countries to explore matters
related to government transparency and accountability. The notion that
such a ?move? had been resisted ?by earlier governments? is also
inaccurate. In fact, the idea for the project emerged from a democracy
conference jointly sponsored by NED, CII and India?s Centre for Policy
Research held two years ago in New Delhi, and attended by democrats from
over 80 countries, keynoted by the distinguished Nobel laureate Amartya
Sen, and widely reported by the Indian media (including The Asian Age).
It must be also noted that contrary to the report, the Endowment does
not have a single tie with the US intelligence and operates completely
in the open. Out website (www.ned.org) lists every grant provided to
support the indigenous efforts of grassroots democrats in areas such as
civic education, rule of law and human rights. The Asian Centre?s work
is completely separate from the grant program. We are proud of our
relationship with official as well as non-governmental institutions of
the world?s largest democracy and regret that there are those so keen to
undermine it that they would distort the factual record.
DAVID LOWE
Director, External Relations, National Endowment for Democracy
______________________________________________
SEEMA MUSTAFA REPLIES:
Mr David Lowe would have done well to be less selective in his
response to the concerned news item. The nature of his response belies
his claim that the NED ?operates completely in the open.? He has not
touched upon the essence of the news report which gave details about the
funds siphoned through India based organizations to Burmese and Tibetan
groups. He has also not spoken of the active role played by the NED in
Yugoslavia. While one is glad to hear from Mr Lowe that the National
Endowment for Democracy has given up its plan to set up an office in
India it is difficult to believe his assertion, in the light of
available facts, that the Endowment ?has not a single tie with US
intelligence.? It is funded by the US State Department. I am sure that
Mr Lowe is proud of his relationship with the institutions of the
world?s largest democracy, as he puts it, but the NED interest in India
has been resisted by previous governments and those concerned about its
activities in other parts of the world. There are obviously no
?inaccuracies? in the report about the 400,000 US dollars transferred to
anti-China and anti-military junta groups in Burma in 1999 alone through
front organizations funded by the NED in India, despite the fact that
this activity runs completely contrary to the foreign policy being
pursued by the Indian government.
(Readers can e-mail their letters to The Asian Age at
medasia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
--------------9DF6D6AC7BC28EA363A563C9
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
Letters to Editor<font size=+2>:</font>
<br><u><font color="#000099"><font size=+2>US Body will fund Burma, Tibet
resistance from Delhi</font></font></u>
<p><font size=+1>Asian Age newspaper, February 25, 2001</font>
<p><font size=+1> Sir, The news item US body will fund
Burma, Tibet resistance from Delhi (The Asian Age, Feb. 13) concerning
the purported activities of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
in India is so riddled with inaccuracy that it cries out for a response.
The article begins by saying NED ?has been cleared? to set up an office
in India. In fact NED has always had one office, located in Washington
DC, United States, and has no intention of establishing another in India
or anywhere else. As reported in the Indian press last year, the Endowment,
a bipartisan foundation supported by the US Congress that promotes democracy
and human rights has begun a joint project with the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) to explore ways to help governing institutions in Asia?s
democracies become more effective. The inaugural conference of the Asian
Centre for Democratic Governance held in New Delhi last month, was attended
by academicians, officeholders, corporate managers, journalists and representatives
from over a dozen countries to explore matters related to government transparency
and accountability. The notion that such a ?move? had been resisted ?by
earlier governments? is also inaccurate. In fact, the idea for the project
emerged from a democracy conference jointly sponsored by NED, CII and India?s
Centre for Policy Research held two years ago in New Delhi, and attended
by democrats from over 80 countries, keynoted by the distinguished Nobel
laureate Amartya Sen, and widely reported by the Indian media (including
The Asian Age). It must be also noted that contrary to the report,
the Endowment does not have a single tie with the US intelligence and operates
completely in the open. Out website (www.ned.org) lists every grant provided
to support the indigenous efforts of grassroots democrats in areas such
as civic education, rule of law and human rights. The Asian Centre?s work
is completely separate from the grant program. We are proud of our relationship
with official as well as non-governmental institutions of the world?s largest
democracy and regret that there are those so keen to undermine it that
they would distort the factual record.</font>
<p><font size=+1>DAVID LOWE</font>
<br><font size=+1>Director, External Relations, National Endowment for
Democracy</font>
<br><font size=+1>______________________________________________</font>
<br><font size=+1>SEEMA MUSTAFA REPLIES:</font>
<p><font size=+1> Mr David Lowe would have done well
to be less selective in his response to the concerned news item. The nature
of his response belies his claim that the NED ?operates completely in the
open.? He has not touched upon the essence of the news report which gave
details about the funds siphoned through India based organizations to Burmese
and Tibetan groups. He has also not spoken of the active role played by
the NED in Yugoslavia. While one is glad to hear from Mr Lowe that the
National Endowment for Democracy has given up its plan to set up an office
in India it is difficult to believe his assertion, in the light of available
facts, that the Endowment ?has not a single tie with US intelligence.?
It is funded by the US State Department. I am sure that Mr Lowe is proud
of his relationship with the institutions of the world?s largest democracy,
as he puts it, but the NED interest in India has been resisted by previous
governments and those concerned about its activities in other parts of
the world. There are obviously no ?inaccuracies? in the report about the
400,000 US dollars transferred to anti-China and anti-military junta groups
in Burma in 1999 alone through front organizations funded by the NED in
India, despite the fact that this activity runs completely contrary to
the foreign policy being pursued by the Indian government.</font>
<p><font size=+1>(Readers can e-mail their letters to The Asian Age at
medasia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)</font>
<p> </html>
--------------9DF6D6AC7BC28EA363A563C9--