Obama criticises India's silence on Myanmar
Agence France-Presse
New Delhi, November 08, 2010
New Delhi, November 08, 2010
First Published: 18:44 IST(8/11/2010)
Last Updated: 18:45 IST(8/11/2010)
Last Updated: 18:45 IST(8/11/2010)
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US President Barack Obama criticised India on Monday for failing to condemn rights abuses in Myanmar, saying democracies with global aspirations could not ignore "gross violations" in other countries. "When peaceful democratic movements are suppressed, as they have been in Burma (Myanmar), then the democracies of the world cannot remain silent," Obama said in an address to the Indian parliament.
"Faced with such gross violations of human rights, it is the responsibility of the international community, especially leaders like the United States and India, to condemn it," he said.
"If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often shied away from these issues," he added.
Earlier in his speech, Obama had, to sustained applause, given his backing to India's push for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
But he also made clear that a place at the the top table of international decision-making would require India to promote and defend its values abroad as well as at home.
"With increased power comes increased responsibility," he said, adding that he looked forward to working with India, "and other nations that aspire to Security Council membership," to ensure that Security Council resolutions are implemented and sanctions enforced.
"Speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It's not violating the rights of sovereign nations," Obama said, in a clear reference to India's non-aligned foreign policy tradition.
"It's staying true to our democratic principles. It's giving meaning to the human rights that we say are universal," he added.
Once a staunch supporter of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, India began engaging the junta in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic priorities came to the fore.
As well as needing the military regime's help to counter the separatists along their common border, India is eyeing oil and gas fields in Myanmar and is eager to counter China's growing influence there.
India in July welcomed Myanmar's reclusive military leader Than Shwe for a state visit, outraging human rights groups who said it was reneging on its principles due to competition with China.
Obama devoted a section of his parliamentary address Monday to rights abuses in Myanmar, and accused its military rulers of stealing Sunday's election there -- the first in the Southeast Asian nation for 20 years.
"It is unacceptable to gun down peaceful protestors and incarcerate political prisoners decade after decade.
"It is unacceptable to steal an election, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see," he said.
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By A WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER
NOVEMBER 8, 2010, 8:37 A.M. ET
BANGKOK—Sporadic clashes between ethnic Karen rebels and Myanmar government troops roiled an important border town Monday a day after the country's first elections in two decades, raising fears of further ethnic violence as Myanmar's armed forces attempt to cement their hold over the country's fractious border regions.
The conflict began Sunday in Myawaddy town near Myanmar's eastern border with Thailand during an election that appears set to deliver a pro-military parliament and which U.S. President Barack Obama and other global leaders have criticized as being neither free nor fair.
Vote counting, meanwhile, continued around the country Monday, although progress remained slow and smaller opposition parties complained of irregularities in the election. State media Monday reported election commission officials as saying that 40 government-backed candidates had won their races, including six recently retired generals.
Gunfire and mortars could be heard in the area from the Thai side of the border across the Moei River and blasts and shooting continued throughout Monday. On the Thai side, Mae Sot district chief Kittisak Tomornsak said fires had been set on the Myanmar side of the river. He estimated that more than 10,000 people had already waded, swam or taken small boats across the strip of water separating the two countries.
Thai police and government officials took many of the fleeing people to a Thai army camp where they tried to supply the people with tarpaulins, food, water and sanitation facilities, but Mr. Kittisak said the local government fears it will be swamped by refugees. "We expect many more to come," Mr. Kittisak said. "It's not clear what's happening on the other side of the border."
The ethnic clashes began on Sunday when a faction from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army took over Myawaddy's police station and post office. The group is generally supportive of Myanmar's military regime, but some members of ethnic-Karen-based force are pressing for greater autonomy from the ethnic-Burman dominated armed forces.
Khin Ohmar, a spokeswoman for the Burma Partnership, a pro-democracy advocacy group active in the area, said the rebel faction seized key installations in Myawaddy Sunday and that fighting resumed with government forces on Monday. Government forces later retreated from the town and began shelling the area as they apparently awaited reinforcements. It's unclear how many casualties there have been.
"The residents say they were told to leave the town and that's why there so many of them coming into Thailand now," Ms. Khin Ohmar said.
A Thai army commander, Col. Wannatip Wongwai, told the Associated Press that Thai authorities would start sending the refugees back across the border once the situation in Myanmar "is under control".
Nearly 40% of Myanmar's 50 million people come from ethnic groups other than the dominant Burmans, who comprise the bulk of the powerful military. The country, also known as Burma, has been riven by a series of guerrilla wars since securing independence from Britain in 1948 but ethnic tensions in the area date back centuries.
Ethnic Karens previously sought their own state, but many in recent years have instead sought out a greater degree of autonomy, as have other ethnic-minority groups such as the Kachin, Wa and Shan. Sunday's election, though, appear to limit the prospect of any autonomous rule for Myanmar's ethnic-minorities, who mostly cluster along the country's long borders. In recent months, tensions have flared as the government stepped up its military presence in border areas and instructed former rebel armies to fold themselves into an integrated border protection force under the direct control of Myanmar's military regime.
Analysts say the faction involved in the Myawaddy clashes resents being absorbed into the government's Border Guard Force and appears to be resisting, as other factions in Kachin and Wa-dominated areas near the Chinese border previously have done.
Thailand and China previously have urged Myanmar not to do anything that could trigger an exodus of refugees from Myanmar. China in particular is anxious for Myanmar to tamp down any volatility in the north of the country where Beijing is building pipelines to pump oil and gas to its big industrial centers.
Myanmar's military regime aims to create new regional assemblies where minority groups can retain their sense of identity. But analysts say ethnic-Karen rebels, among others, are skeptical that they will be allowed to exert any influence over the areas which they previously attempted to rule by themselves.
Myanmar's military leaders say Sunday's vote—the first since 1990—will put the country on the path to democracy. Critics allege the ballot is an attempt to sanitize a regime best known for detaining Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won the 1990 vote, under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.
The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party appears set to secure the largest share of the seats despite decades of economic mismanagement and harsh repression. It put forward candidates for nearly all the 1,159 seats in the two-house national parliament and 14 regional legislatures. Another pro-military party, the National Unity Party contested around 995 seats.
The largest antigovernment party, in contrast, put forward just 164 candidates and the constitution guarantees 25% of parliamentary seats for military appointees. Ms. Suu Kyi was barred from participating and urged a boycott of the vote.
(the wallstreet journal)
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