Three four days back CBS/NBC news ran a story highlighting Buddhist religion involvement in recent uprising, how great is US where state and religion are separate, secularism etc... They are hell scared on Buddhism.
On otherside, India's foreign policy is total garbage. No direction, no vision.
Sr. Menon screwed India in 1962 and Jr. Menon is no different. No wonder all about DNA.
10-05-2007, 04:10 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-05-2007, 08:15 AM by dhu.)
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Oct 5 2007, 03:40 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Oct 5 2007, 03:40 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->They are hell scared on Buddhism.[right][snapback]73900[/snapback][/right]
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They have learned from their mistakes. Buddhism was allied with the Vietnamese Nationalist movement during the Vietnam War. It probably was a major cause of downfall of US plans in the puppet South.
Today on NBC news, They were refering Buddhist as non-believers. <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
People are leaving Catholic religion and are chasing Buddism and they are worried.
10-05-2007, 09:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2007, 05:54 AM by dhu.)
They have graduated to proxy and cultural war over direct intervention. Probably they have tasted blood in Nepal and are now setting stage for Nepal to Northeast link. At least this makes sense. We should study pedigree of the democratic movement.
The maternal grandfather of Suu Kim was a NT reading christist. Suu Kim is married to a 'western buddhist scholar' who was a tutor to the royal family in Bhutan and her children are named Alexander and Kim. She studied in Delhi and St. Hugh's College, Oxford.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the following years, her mother, Daw Khin Kyi raised her daughter as a Buddhist while her own father, a converted Christian, would read the New Testament to Young Aung San Suu Kyi. link<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
10-05-2007, 09:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2007, 11:45 AM by dhu.)
American clowns discussing Avro Manhattan and Burma:
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->To: SamuraiScot
<i>Now that you mention it, the Buddhists weren't peaceful in Vietnam, either. In the pocket of the North Viet Communists, agitating and manipulating to bring down the government of Diem, who was Catholic.</i>
Yeah right. It was the Buddhists who were violent.
The Promotion of Catholic Totalitarianism http://www.reformation.org/chapter10.html
Having consolidated the State machinery with loyal Catholics, and feeling sure of their loyalty, not to mention of the tacit and indeed active support of his protector, the U.S., Diem took the second step to make his dream come true. He undertook a systematic and well calculated policy against the non-Catholic religions.
His policy was directed at the neutralization, disruption and finally elimination of the Buddhists or Buddhist inspired religions of Vietnam. These sects, many opposing each other on religious and political grounds, could nevertheless equal, and indeed effectively oppose any Catholic administration, had they created a united front.
Diem's policy was a subtle one. He encouraged their dissension. This he did by giving bribes, by sending agents in their midst, by promising official protection, and by denying the same to others. The result became apparent in no time. The religious sects fell into the Diem trap. They began to fight one another with increasing bitterness. This culminated with the internecine religious-political feud, between the Binh Xuyen, and the Hao Hao and the Cao Dai groups. Their enmity was not only religious, it was concretely real. Their battle was a bloody one. At one time various quarters of Saigon itself were devastated. The Buddhists set up a committee to give aid to the victims. Diem suppressed them at once. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
10-06-2007, 03:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2007, 09:17 PM by dhu.)
http://www.wfda.net/index.htm
World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA)
they have link to almost every asian country including Taiwan and Timor. They also have a Sept 11 reference. It is based out of Taiwan. Contact name given is one Bo Tedards. Pakistani also on board at sister org ARDA . this last one has an article on "dalits" under the india tag.
Malaysian author:
http://mahagraha.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/...ietnam-in-1963/
<b>Burma Now â Like South Vietnam in 1963? </b>| Sep 28th 2007
As a boy I have a wild sense of imagination. This sense of imagination applies to everything â including to the situation in Burma.
I imagine that the situation in Mynmar now may deteriorate to a situation where the Buddhist monks engaging in drastic actions. One such drastic action is self immolation. Perhaps such actions are being contemplated right now. Who knows?
<b>Self immolation was done by Buddhist monks in 1963 in South Vietnam. At that time, there was a confrontation between the government of Ngo Dinh Diem who is Catholic </b>(Diem had previously place Catholics in key position of the government and military); and the Buddhists monks (and most of the population are Buddhist).
An act of self immolation was done by a 73 year old Buddhist monk â Thich Quang Duc. Quang Duc sacrificed himself with the help of 3 other Buddhist monks. With the help pf an assistant, Quang Duc soaked himself with 4 gallons of petrol. Then he lit himself ablaze.
This self immolation was performed symbolically to coincide with Ngo Dinh Diemâs visit to a Catholic church just one mile away.
<b>The self immolation of Quang Duc started a wave of mass protest and riots â which eventually resulted in pro Buddhist elements of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) rebelling and toppling Diemâs government. </b>Just to note, before the November 1 coup, 7 more Buddhist monks and nuns immolated themselves. In retrospect, the self-sacrifice of these Buddhist monks earn themselves a moral power which ultimately helped to topple the hated Catholic-Diem regime.
Such a thing may be applied by the Buddhist monks in Myanmar. In todayâs Myanmar the cleavage between the Buddhist monks (especially the younger generation) and the military junta is getting wider and wider. It may be a matter of time that things will get nasty between both of these conflicting social forces. Moreover this conflict has a severe underlying reason â i.e. economic hardship and a plethora of other social problems. The Buddhist monks, in which so far has lead the protests may be turn themselves into a force of change.
The military junta may be overwhelmed by popular dissent. The military junta may also face revolt within their ranks or from other dissatisfied/disenchanted officers from the army.
On the other hand, the army/military may play an iron-hand and use their guns and oppressive forces to maintain power â just like in 1988. The Buddhist led protests may be crushed with force.
Anyway, these are just predictions. Of course, I am not a Mynmarist. I am definitely not an expert on Burma. It will be good if we have a blogger who is a Mymnarist (well versed in Burma history, society and government), who can give a better take on the current situation there.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Oct 5 2007, 08:50 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Oct 5 2007, 08:50 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Today on NBC news, They were refering Buddhist as non-believers. <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
People are leaving Catholic religion and are chasing Buddism and they are worried.
[right][snapback]73908[/snapback][/right]
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Well, the christian church in the west is clearly worried about the growing influence and popularity of buddhism in their societies. It is considered to be the fastest growing religion in Australia and Canada, where much of its growth comes from whites adopting buddhism. In the US also, it is the most popular religion for christians, particularly those from fundamentalist christian sects, to adopt, plus not to mention the endorsement and support it recieves from numerous hollywood celebrities and pop stars.
10-07-2007, 01:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-07-2007, 01:55 PM by Husky.)
<!--QuoteBegin-sankara+Oct 6 2007, 11:52 PM-->QUOTE(sankara @ Oct 6 2007, 11:52 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->It (Buddhism) is considered to be the fastest growing religion in Australia and Canada, where much of its growth comes from whites adopting buddhism. In the US also, it is the most popular religion for christians, particularly those from fundamentalist christian sects, to adopt, plus not to mention the endorsement and support it recieves from numerous hollywood celebrities and pop stars.
[right][snapback]73968[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->In Germany, Buddhism has long been the fastest growing religion. In fact, German actress Anja Kruse is a Buddhist - who IMO happens to be the most beautiful German woman.
<img src='http://thumbnails.freeimagehost.eu/122/afe9101212142.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
(She is wearing Indian clothes in this pic, because it's a still from a famous Italian-European fantasy movie that was filmed in India. She doesn't usually look so Indian, btw)
And Jennifer Connelly of Jewish-Irish parentage - and the loveliest actress in the US by far, IMO again - was always wearing a little Dalai Lama locket around her neck. (Don't know if she still does.) A famous youngish Greek singer is also Buddhist, she gave an interview on this. Don't know her name, I only knew of her from her interview which I came across when googling for something else...
10-07-2007, 05:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-07-2007, 08:03 PM by Bodhi.)
the events and the indian reactions, both make it sound as if this comes from some alien, unknown, very-far continent.
seeing the indian reaction to the events in Burma is very dsappointing. Even those who want India to play a larger role, say it is because it should be a custodian of democracy in its neighbourhood ..blah blah... and so on...
Everyone has simply forgotten that Burma was very much an INTEGRAL PART OF INDIA only 70 years back, up until 1937!! Rangoon was very much our cultural hub, within this very last century itself, and a part of the Indian Psyche. Anybody remembers the famous hit song long time back - 'Morey piya gaye rangoon, wahan se kiya hai telephone'? Rangoon was home to a large Hindi speaking population. Netaji's INA had captured Rangoon (after Andamans), and operated their offense from there. Burmese soldiers used to be an integral part of the Indian Army. Barma was as much the backyard of Dharmic civilization, and an integral part of of what then was Greater India. But it is unfortunate we have forgotten the past, and left Burma to its own and to Communist China and to Missionaries. Just Like Nepal.
Why go that far! we have even forgotten our North East!! CNN-IBN and NDTV are carrying a head-line - "Indo-Naga Talks Begin". Indo-Naga??? Naga is already separated from India, by these psecs anti-national news channes?
<span style='color:red'>India needs Burma</span>
Swapan Dasgupta
At the best of times, unless it emanates from the Anglosphere or Pakistan, foreign news interests only a minusculity; at the worst of times, it is ignored altogether. As such, it was hardly surprising that TV images of Buddhist monks marching silently through the streets of Yangon seemed remote, if not unfamiliar.
Had it not been for the halo around Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who has replaced Nelson Mandela as the living Mahatma, the turmoil in Burma would have been ignored altogether by an India that has too much on its own plate.
History being at a permanent discount in a country on the make, few recall that <b>just 70 years ago Burma was an integral part of India. Nearly 20 lakh people from other provinces lived and worked in Burma; two-thirds of the population of Rangoon (as it was then known) comprised migrants from India; Karen and Kachin contingents added muscle to the Indian army; Burma rice was a staple and the Burma cheroot an indulgence. From the pagoda that once graced Calcutta's Eden Gardens (adjoining the cricket ground) and King Thibaw's palace of exile in Ratnagiri to Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's novels, Burma was etched in the Indian consciousness.</b>
The separation of Burma from India in 1937, the expulsion of nearly four lakh Indians in 1963 and the military regime's self-imposed isolation from the world may have contributed to Burma's receding mindshare in India. Actually, the eclipse was part of a larger process of the physical and mental truncation of India.
It is worth recalling the change in frontiers the past 70 years has brought about. <b>In 1937, India shared land borders with Persia (Iran), Afghanistan and Russia in the west and China, Tibet, Siam (Thailand), French Indo-China (Laos and Vietnam) and Malaya in the east. Ceylon lay just across the Palk Straits and the emirates in the Persian Gulf constituted a sphere of Indian influence, controlled by an India-appointed resident in Bushehr.</b> Successive viceroys exchanged angry notes with London demanding a similar arrangement in Teheran and Baghdad.
The enlarged frontiers were linked to India's security. India, explained Lord Curzon, the most nationalist of the imperialists, "is like a fortress...; but beyond these walls, which... admit of being easily penetrated, extends a glacis...We do not want to occupy it, but also we cannot afford to see it occupied by our foes... That is the secret of the whole position in Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and as far eastwards as Siam. He would be a short-sighted commander who merely manned his ramparts in India and did not look beyond."
<b>Tragically, in the first flush of Independence, India's socialist leaders dismissed the Great Game as an imperialist fantasy. Already hamstrung by Partition, India vacated the Asian space to China, Russia and the US. A series of disastrous economic turns reduced India to a bit player, scarcely able to look beyond Pakistan. India suffered a reduction of stature, responsibilities and ambition. It is only in the past decade - with the recovery of economic composure - that the recovery of a lost inheritance has begun. </b>
<b>Burma was always regarded as the buffer zone between India and an expansionist China. But India abdicated its responsibilities and allowed Beijing to become the dominant influence in Burma. Today, China lurks over India from Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal and Burma. Its shadow has encroached into the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman islands.</b>
For India, the upsurge in Burma is an opportunity to turn the clock back. But before that happens, Burma must return to our mental map. India needs Burma more than Burma needs it.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion...how/2435736.cms
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tragically, in the first flush of Independence, India's socialist leaders dismissed the Great Game as an imperialist fantasy. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They have not dismissed the great game. They have actively racialized India's relations with Tibet, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, and within India (Northeast and South). The former Hindu space, within which Aurobindo was able to observe that Chinese monks could travel in India without hindrance or even the gawking gaze, has been racialized. Every Bully schoolyard conflict has been given "scientific" grounding as race theory.
10-09-2007, 04:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-09-2007, 04:47 AM by dhu.)
Asiafinest:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ICUQB4UQRU:
It just ironic how that girl do the story telling of a girl being rape by 20 soldiers with a smile on her face.
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Tradtacular:
 <img src='http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd67/HHE98/UnitedRepublicofChina.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
I find it very funny that you want Myanmar to be "free" from the SPDC and yet you're all calling Myanmar by it's colonial slave name "Burma"
Aung San Suu Kyi is a traitor to the people of Myanmar whether you like it or not. She called for economic sanctions against Myanmar that could damage the economy and make things worse for the common citizenry, also, the destruction of the Myanmar economy will also mean economic and political monopolization of Myanmar...or "Burma" as it would be reverted to if that happens by the first world (most specifically by the US, UK and the EU). Aung San Suu Kyi is a mutated barbie doll controlled by the US and European governments and the UN who wants to make Myanmar safe for first world, zionist and globalist imperialism.
How dare all of you who call yourself Burmese patriots if you support a whore like Aung suu Kyi.
----
False, [I'm] Half-Chinese
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Aung San Suu Kyi wanted sanctions imposed on Myanmar which would only ruin the livelyhoods of common people and workers there just so she can attain power, that sounds a bit narcissistic to me.
Usually when other nations, particularly rich industrialized nations like the US, UK and Japan want to raise their economic influence on a country they impose sanctions on such countries so they can ruin their economic which in turn ruins the military and infrastructure making it easier for business of rich nations to destroy locally and nationally owned business of the target country.
PB...I know quite a few things about Myanmar...infact, note that I call the country by it's real name and not it's colony name that was given to it by their former British owners.
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I'm surprised and appalled you're countering my arguments with brainless bigotry and flagrant stereotypes towards Chinese people. You realize that Aung san Suu Kyi and her band of protesters want the first world (meaning the US and EU) and the UN to interfere with the affairs of Myanmar. If you look at all my posts in this thread I have NEVER EVER insulted the Myanmarian people in any way, only Aung san Suu Kyi...and my flaming towards her was in no way racial...just political.
----<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Communist Party of Burma has a pivotal role.
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2007/09/burma-...communists.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->While today, Aung San Su Kyi plays down her family's radical past, Aung San was in fact the first general secretary of the CPB at its foundation congress in 1939. An uncle on her mother's side was a later general secretary of the CPB.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Burma quagmire </b>
Pioneer.com
Lookback : Bibhu Prasad Routray
<i> ]When starting a car, the driver never has a view of what lies just an inch ahead of the front wheel. India's 'Look East' policy is something like that -- we don't have a clear policy on Burma, but we have plans all the way up to glitzy Singapore. This was clear last fortnight when South Block found itself rudely awakened by the din of the pro-democracy movement in Burma and ended up betraying utter confusion at the heart of its policy on an important neighbour. Saturday Special focusses this week on New Delhi's latest foreign policy disaster</i>
In terms of flip flops in diplomacy, there have been few precedents to what New Delhi displayed on its Burma policy over the past fortnight. It all started with a muted silence on the spate of violence unleashed by the military on the pro-democracy activists in Burma led by the Buddhist monks. When the world reacted with rage and disgust to the way the military crushed the opposition, India appeared to reinforce its (alleged) realism by appearing unconcerned with what it termed as an "internal affair" of Burma.
But, soon afterwards,<b> India's External Affairs Minister cautiously called for an "investigation" into the violence. But, the newly appointed Army Chief continued to underline how important Burma remains to India. However, at the time of writing, India seems to be headed towards an 180-degree shift, but in all too unconvincing note. New Delhi is now pleading for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, without, of course, failing to flatter the military junta with gas collaboration offers</b>.
While strategists can claim this to be the triumph of realpolitik over emotions, the episode nonetheless was demonstrative of India's 'neither-here-nor-there' policy on Burma.
Up to 1995, India appeared to be behind the pro-democracy forces. The Narasimha Rao Government conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding on Aung San Suu Kyi. But, in 2000, India made a U-turn by establishing ties with the rogue junta. One of the avowed objectives of such a radical shift -- some people called it 'pragmatism' -- was to checkmate China's growing influence in Burma. Others included achieving energy cooperation and finding an answer to the problem of militancy in India's North-East.
India, however, continues to be torn between 'pragmatism' and 'idealism', a policy that convinces neither the junta nor the pro-democracy activists in Burma. While throwing its support behind the men in uniform, India sometimes suffers guilt trips. That's why it occasionally ponders whether supporting the forces of democracy could have been a better choice.
<b>India provides financial assistance to Burma, builds its roads, revamps its refineries, and assists its railway and telecommunication projects. The overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas Commission -- ONGC Videsh Ltd -- and Gas Authority of India Limited are involved in several oil fields of Burma. India assumes that confrontation in any form with the junta must be avoided. Thus, large-scale human rights abuses perpetrated by the junta are overlooked. At the same time, however, India continues to play host to about 52,000 refugees from Burma. </b>
On the security front, Burma has paid little heed to India's concerns. Hundreds of militants operating in India's North-East maintain their bases in the Sagaing division. In December 2001, as many as 192 cadre of the United National Liberation Front, a Manipur-based militant outfit, were arrested by the Burmese Army. As India waited for their extradition, all of them were set free by February 14, 2002 in four phases. In 2006, India started supplying military hardware, including four Islander maritime patrol aircraft, 105 mm light artillery guns, naval gun-boats, mortars, grenade-launchers, rifles and other small arms to the junta with the hope that the military would launch a Bhutan-like operation against the militants. However, Burma has chosen to respond with intermittent operations, a trend that has continued since the late 1980s.
Of late, a cosy relationship has evolved between the military officials and the North-Eastern militants. The militants have generously gifted money and vehicles to the military, who, in turn, have periodically tipped them off about impending operations. Four decades of military rule has left Burma in a state of arrested political and economic development. The world before the junta is made of two types of countries -- it has to choose between allies like China and sanction imposers like the US and the European Union. Its economic performance has been pathetic. The per capita gross domestic product is just $1,800. While inflation in 2005 remained at a staggering 17.6 per cent, its economy expanded at a snail's pace by three per cent in 2006.
The half-literate Generals have used the economic assistance to bolster their stay in power, rather than driving the country towards development and prosperity. Its economic policies have been pure irrational, forcing the people to take desperate measures, even when odds are pitted heavily against them.
As the military trampled over the voices of opposition in the streets of Rangoon, India, as the world's largest democracy on Burma's western border, was expected to play a greater role. Little, however, was realised. The ambivalence has left India with no influence among the Generals in that country, who have demonstrated no desire to return India's favours in consolidating their stay in power.
--<i> The author is Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi</i><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>UPA shrewd on Suu Kyi </b>
Sandhya Jain
After hectic advocacy by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Burma Campaign, UK, British MPs John Bercow and Baroness Caroline Cox met a Chin group on the India-Myanmar border last month, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Earlier in May 2007, the House of Commons International Development Committee called for cross-border aid to Myanmar's internally displaced people. As Britain does not share a border with Myanmar, presumably this meant using Indian territory for British purposes.
The focus on Myanmar, arrogantly called Burma (maybe Zimbabwe is Rhodesia), months before the current unrest wherein organised bands of Buddhist monks and students took to the streets, is suspicious. Last year, rented mobs brought Nepal to a standstill. A Seven-Party Alliance took office, was conned into co-opting Maoist goons with a Christian leadership, and is now being forced to declare a Republic without Constituent Assembly elections, even as Nepalis are revising their hostility to the monarchy.Â
In Myanmar, despite restrictions by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), foreign journalists and missionaries have smuggled themselves in and met Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), under house detention since 1990. Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports Ms Suu Kyi told a foreign missionary her favourite verse in the Bible is John 8:32, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." She regularly asks Christians around the world to pray for Burma (not Myanmar).
Â
At a time when India is under calibrated international and domestic pressure to denounce Myanmar's military rulers, at the cost of strategic and energy concerns, one notices striking facets in the political careers of Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi and Ms Suu Kyi. There maybe some significant lessons here.
Â
Ms Gandhi, an Italian-born Roman Catholic, hails from a family loyal to Benito Mussolini. She married Rajiv Gandhi, son of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; he became Prime Minister after her assassination in 1984. In 1991, Congress failed to win enough seats to form its own Government, so PV Narasimha Rao was asked to cobble a working majority, while the widowed Ms Gandhi bided her time. By 1998, she felt strong enough to physically takeover the party from president Sitaram Kesri, but in 2004, despite overt support, was denied premiership and forced to make way for Mr Manmohan Singh.
Â
She now hopes to groom her son, Mr Rahul Gandhi, for leadership of the party and country. The citizenship status of Ms Gandhi and her two children has never been clarified; she is a naturalised Indian and under Italian law, she and her offspring are eternally entitled to Italian citizenship. This was how she took her husband and children to the Italian embassy in 1977 after Mrs Indira Gandhi lost the elections.
Â
Ms Gandhi's long and privileged stay in this country was lucrative to her native country and friends. The Italian public sector Snam Progetti won extravagant and regular fertiliser contracts in India, and her personal friend Ottavio Quattrocchi even doubled up as a middleman in the Bofors kickbacks scandal. The Congress president had enough political cachet to help friends evade justice after the scandal broke, and as UPA chairperson ensured that the Bofors monies, frozen in two London accounts, were released to Mr Quattrocchi, and that he walked free after detention in Argentina!
Â
More recently, she struggled hard to impose the controversial India-US nuclear deal on the nation, despite its crippling financial, technological and security implications for India. The covert but firm opposition of coalition partners to premature elections appears to have scuttled the deal, but it is too early to celebrate. Observers expect Congress to somehow 'buy' Left compliance.
Â
Ms Suu Kyi, daughter of a respected leader, married an Englishman, lived abroad for several years, and is almost certainly a Christian, even if born a Buddhist. Her two sons hold British passports and live abroad. Despite public nostalgia for her late father, she has weak roots in Myanmar and really cannot be trusted to lead a resource-rich nation for which Western multinationals are lusting.Â
If Senior General Than Shwe seriously intends to negotiate with her, a legitimate precondition would be abdication of Myanmarese citizenship and NLD leadership, and return to the land of her husband and sons. British-style conditions on the religious affiliations of rulers may also be in order. Since NLD claims popular support, it should manage to field native leaders in future elections.
Â
Interestingly, Ms Suu Kyi supports Western sanctions against Myanmar, though these hurt the ordinary people and not the regime. Worse, she maintained a complicit silence over the selective nature of sanctions imposed from 1990. Indian analysts furious at Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor's advocacy of a "close relationship" with Myanmar counterparts and dismissive of India's quest for energy security, may be unaware that Washington exempts oil giant Chevron from the sanctions regime. Â
The reason, of course, is that Mr George Bush Jr, Mr Dick Cheney and Ms Condoleezza Rice have powerful links with the American oil industry. Oil was the reason why the US had to 'secure' the Iraqi oilfields, and why it is preparing to bring 'democracy' to Iran. Wall Street barons protest that if Chevron does not do business with SPDC, non-American companies will (read China, India, Thailand, Russia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore and South Korea). Total of France, which daily extracts over 17 million cubic meters of natural gas, enjoys similar immunity. In the circumstances, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora was wise to keep his appointment in Yangon, and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to oppose sanctions as futile.
India needs Myanmar's cooperation to tackle insurgencies in the North-East. The thick jungles provide refuge to the Isak-Muivah and Khaplang factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, United Liberation Front of Asom, three major Manipur militant groups, United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People's Liberation Army and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup. Cooperation was withdrawn in 1995 when the Narasimha Rao Government conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding on Ms Suu Kyi. The Vajpayee regime repaired ties in November 2000, but confidence-building is not a linear road. Having once burnt its fingers, India cannot sacrifice vital national interests to duplicitous Western rhetoric; the UPA is acting shrewdly.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
10-16-2007, 06:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2007, 06:42 PM by dhu.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Burma Regime Change - The Geopolitical Stakes of the Saffron Revolution</b>
Oct 15, 2007 - 08:42 AM
By: F_William_Engdahl
There are facts and then there are facts. Take the case of the recent mass protests in Burma or Myanmar depending on which name you prefer to call the former British colony. First it's a fact which few will argue that the present military dictatorship of the reclusive General Than Shwe is right up there when it comes to world-class tyrannies. It's also a fact that Burma enjoys one of the world's lowest general living standards. Partly as a result of the ill-conceived 100% to 500% price hikes in gasoline and other fuels in August, inflation, the nominal trigger for the mass protests led by Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, is unofficially estimated to have risen by 35%. Ironically the demand to establish âmarketâ energy prices came from the IMF and World Bank.
The UN estimates the population of some 50 million inhabitants spends up to 70% of their monthly income on food alone. The recent fuel price hike makes matters unbearable for tens of millions.
Myanmar is also deeply involved in the world narcotics trade, ranking only behind Hamid Karzai's Afghanistan as a source for heroin. As well, it is said to be Southeast Asia 's largest producer of methamphetamines.
This is all understandable powder to unleash a social explosion of protest against the regime.
<b>It is also a fact that the Myanmar military junta is on the Hit List of Condi Rice and the Bush Administration for its repressive ways. Has the Bush leopard suddenly changed his spots? </b>Or is there a more opaque agenda behind Washington 's calls to impose severe economic and political sanctions on the regime? Here some not-so-publicized facts help.
Behind the recent CNN news pictures of streams of saffron-robed Buddhist Monks marching in the streets of the former capital city Rangoon (Yangon) in Myanmarâthe US government still prefers to call it by the British colonial name, Burmaâcalling for more democracy, is a battle of major geopolitical consequence.
The major actors
<b>The tragedy of Burma, whose land area is about the size of George W. Bush's Texas, is that its population is being used as a human stage prop in a drama which has been scripted in Washington by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the George Soros Open Society Institute, Freedom House and Gene Sharp's Albert Einstein Institution, a US intelligence asset </b>used to spark ânon-violentâ regime change around the world on behalf of the US strategic agenda.
Burma's âSaffron Revolution,â like the Ukraine âOrange Revolutionâ or the Georgia âRose Revolutionâ and the various Color Revolutions instigated in recent years against strategic states surrounding Russia, is a well-orchestrated exercise in Washington-run regime change, down to the details of âhit-and-runâ protests with âswarmingâ mobs of Buddhists in saffron, internet blogs, mobile SMS links between protest groups, well-organized protest cells which disperse and reform. <b>CNN made the blunder during a September broadcast of mentioning the active presence of the NED behind the protests in Myanmar .</b>
<b>In fact the US State Department admits to supporting the activities of the NED in Myanmar .</b> The NED is a US Government-funded âprivateâ entity whose activities are designed to support US foreign policy objectives, doing today what the CIA did during the Cold War. As well the NED funds Soros' Open Society Institute in fostering regime change in Myanmar . In an October 30 2003 Press Release the State Department admitted, âThe United States also supports organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute and Internews, working inside and outside the region on a broad range of democracy promotion activities.â It all sounds very self-effacing and noble of the State Department. Is it though?
<b>In reality the US State Department has recruited and trained key opposition leaders from numerous anti-government organizations. </b>It has poured the relatively huge sum (for Myanmar ) of more than $2.5 million annually into NED activities in promoting regime change in Myanmar since at least 2003. <b>The US regime change, its Saffron Revolution, is being largely run according to informed reports, out of the US Consulate General in bordering Chaing Mai , Thailand . </b>There activists are recruited and trained, in some cases directly in the USA , before being sent back to organize inside Myanmar . T<b>he USA 's NED admits to funding key opposition media including the New Era Journal , Irrawaddy and the Democratic Voice of Burma radio.</b>
<b>The concert-master of the tactics of Saffron monk-led non-violence regime change is Gene Sharp, founder of the deceptively-named Albert Einstein Institution </b>in Cambridge Massachusetts , a group funded by an arm of the NED to foster US-friendly regime change in key spots around the world. <b>Sharp's institute has been active in Burma since 1989, just after the regime massacred some 3000 protestors to silence the opposition. </b>CIA special operative and former US Military Attache in Rangoon, Col. Robert Helvey, an expert in clandestine operations, introduced Sharp to Burma in 1989 to train the opposition there in non-violent strategy. Interestingly, Sharp was also in China two weeks before the dramatic events at Tiananmen Square .
Why Myanmar now?
A relevant question is why the US Government has such a keen interest in fostering regime change in Myanmar at this juncture. We can dismiss rather quickly the idea that it has genuine concern for democracy, justice, human rights for the oppressed population there. Iraq and Afghanistan are sufficient testimony to the fact Washington 's paean to Democacy is propaganda cover for another agenda.
The question is what would lead to such engagement in such a remote place as Myanmar ?
Geopolitical control seems to be the answer. Control ultimately of the strategic sea lanes from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea . The coastline of Myanmar provides naval access in the proximity of one of the world's most strategic water passages, the Strait of Malacca , the narrow ship passage between Malaysia and Indonesia .
The Pentagon has been trying to militarize the region since September 11, 2001 on the argument of defending against possible terrorist attack. The US has managed to gain an airbase on Banda Aceh, the Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base, on the northernmost tip of Indonesia . The governments of the region, including Myanmar , however, have adamantly refused US efforts to militarize the region. A glance at a map will confirm the strategic importance of Myanmar .
The Strait of Malacca , linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans , is the shortest sea route between the Persian Gulf and China . It is the key chokepoint in Asia . More than 80% of all China 's oil imports are shipped by tankers passing the Malacca Strait . The narrowest point is the Phillips Channel in the Singapore Strait, only 1.5 miles wide at its narrowest. Daily more than 12 million barrels in oil supertankers pass through this narrow passage, most en route to the world's fastest-growing energy market, China or to Japan.
If the strait were closed, nearly half of the world's tanker fleet would be required to sail further. Closure would immediately raise freight rates worldwide. More than 50,000 vessels per year transit the Strait of Malacca . The region from Maynmar to Banda Aceh in Indonesia is fast becoming one of the world's most strategic chokepoints. Who controls those waters controls China 's energy supplies.
<img src='http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/William_Engdahl_15_10_07_image002.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
That strategic importance of Myanmar has not been lost on Beijing .
Since it became clear to China that the US was hell-bent on a unilateral militarization of the Middle East oil fields in 2003, Beijing has stepped up its engagement in Myanmar . Chinese energy and military security, not human rights concerns drive their policy.
In recent years Beijing has poured billions of dollars in military assistance into Myanmar , including fighter, ground-attack and transport aircraft; tanks and armored personnel carriers; naval vessels and surface-to-air missiles. China has built up Myanmar railroads and roads and won permission to station its troops in Myanmar . China , according to Indian defense sources, has also built a large electronic surveillance facility on Myanmar 's Coco Islands and is building naval bases for access to the Indian Ocean .
In fact Myanmar is an integral part of what China terms its âstring of pearls,â its strategic design of establishing military bases in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia in order to counter US control over the Strait of Malacca chokepoint. There is also energy on and offshore of Myanmar, and lots of it.
The gas fields of Myanmar
Oil and gas have been produced in Myanmar since the British set up the Rangoon Oil Company in 1871, later renamed Burmah Oil Co. The country has produced natural gas since the 1970's, and in the 1990's it granted gas concessions to the foreign companies ElfTotal of France and Premier Oil of the UK in the Gulf of Martaban. Later Texaco and Unocal (now Chevron) won concessions at Yadana and Yetagun as well. Alone Yadana has an estimated gas reserve of more than 5 trillion cubic feet with an expected life of at least 30 years. Yetagun is estimated to have about a third the gas of the Yadana field.
In 2004 a large new gas field, Shwe field, off the coast of Arakan was discovered.
By 2002 both Texaco and Premier Oil withdrew from the Yetagun project following UK government and NGO pressure. Malaysia's Petronas bought Premier's 27% stake. By 2004 Myanmar was exporting Yadana gas via pipeline to Thailand worth annually $1 billion to the Myanmar regime.
In 2005 China, Thailand and South Korea invested in expanding the Myanmar oil and gas sector, with export of gas to Thailand rising 50%. Gas export today is Myanmar's most important source of income. Yadana was developed jointly by ElfTotal, Unocal, PTT-EP of Thailand and Myanmar's state MOGE, operated by the French ElfTotal. Yadana supplies some 20% of Thai natural gas needs.
Today the Yetagun field is operated by Malaysia's Petronas along with MOGE and Japan's Nippon Oil and PTT-EP. The gas is piped onshore where it links to the Yadana pipeline. Gas from the Shwe field is to come online beginning 2009. China and India have been in strong contention over the Shwe gas field reserves.
India loses, China wins
This past summer Myanmar signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PetroChina to supply large volumes of natural gas from reserves of the Shwe gasfield in the Bay of Bengal. The contract runs for 30 years. India was the main loser. Myanmar had earlier given India a major stake in two offshore blocks to develop gas to have been transmitted via pipeline through Bangladesh to India's energy-hungry economy. Political bickering between India and Bangladesh brought the Indian plans to a standstill.
China took advantage of the stalemate. China simply trumped India with an offer to invest billions in building a strategic China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline across Myanmar from Myanmar's deepwater port at Sittwe in the Bay of Bengal to Kunming in China's Yunnan Province, a stretch of more than 2,300 kilometers. China plans an oil refinery in Kumming as well.
What the Myanmar-China pipelines will allow is routing of oil and gas from Africa (Sudan among other sources) and the Middle East (Iran, Saudi Arabia) independent of dependence on the vulnerable chokepoint of the Malacca Strait. Myanmar becomes China's âbridgeâ linking Bangladesh and countries westward to the China mainland independent of any possible future moves by Washington to control the strait.
India's dangerous alliance shift
It's no wonder that China is taking such precautions. Ever since the Bush Administration decided in 2005 to recruit India to the Pentagon's âNew Framework for US-India Defense Relations,'India has been pushed into a strategic alliance with Washington in order to counter China in Asia.
In an October 2002 Pentagon report, â The Indo-US Military Relationship ,' the Office of Net Assessments stated the reason for the India-USA defense alliance would be to have a âcapable partner' who can take on âmore responsibility for low-end operations' in Asia, provide new training opportunities and âultimately provide basing and access for US power projection.' Washington is also quietly negotiating a base on Indian territory , a severe violation of India 's traditional non-aligned status.
Power projection against whom? China , perhaps?
As well, the Bush Administration has offered India to lift its 30 year nuclear sanctions and to sell advanced US nuclear technology, legitimizing India 's open violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, at the same time Washington accuses Iran of violating same, an exercise in political hypocrisy to say the least.
Notably, just as the Saffron-robed monks of Myanmar took to the streets, the Pentagon opened joint US-Indian joint naval exercises, Malabar 07 , along with armed forces from Australia , Japan and Singapore . The US showed the awesome muscle of its 7 th Fleet, deploying the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk; guided missile cruisers USS Cowpens and USS Princeton and no less than five guided missile destroyers.
US-backed regime change in Myanmar together with Washington 's growing military power projection via India and other allies in the region is clearly a factor in Beijing 's policy vis-Ã -vis Myanmar 's present military junta. As is often the case these days, from Darfur to Caracas to Rangoon , the rallying call of Washington for democracy ought to be tasted with at least a grain of good salt.
<i>
* F. William Engdahl is author of the book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation , about to be released by Global Research Publishing, and author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order , Pluto Press. He may be reached via his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net .</i><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Color Revolutions, Geopolitics and the Baku Pipeline
by F. William Engdahl
25 June 2005
...
Sharp's book is literally the bible of the Color Revolutions, a kind of âregime change for dummies.â Sharp created his Albert Einstein Institution in 1983, with backing from Harvard University. It is funded by the US Congress' NED and the Soros Foundations, to train people in and to study the theories of ânon-violence as a form of warfare.â Sharp has worked with NATO and the CIA over the years training operators in Burma, Lithuania, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine to Taiwan, even Venezuela and Iraq.
In short virtually every regime which has been the target of a US-backed soft coup in the past twenty years has involved Gene Sharp and usually, his associate, Col. Robert Helvey, a retired US Army intelligence specialist. Notably, Sharp was in Beijing two weeks before student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989. The Pentagon and US intelligence have refined the art of such soft coups to a fine level. RAND planners call it âswarming,â referring to the swarms of youth, typically linked by SMS and web blogs, who can be mobilized on command to destabilize a target regime.
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01-06-2008, 10:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-06-2008, 11:39 PM by dhu.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> US First Lady Criticizes Burma's Leaders on Independence Day
By VOA News
05 January 2008
<b>U.S. First Lady Laura Bush has issued strong criticism of Burma's military leadership, on the country's 60th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule.</b>
In a statement Friday, Mrs. Bush said "instead of celebrating their freedom, the Burmese people live in fear, poverty and oppression under General Than Shwe and his military regime."
Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, also issued a statement Friday saying that the Burmese people's aspirations for democracy, stability and prosperity have been frustrated.
A speech by General Than Shwe was read during a flag-raising ceremony in the new capital city of Naypyidaw Friday. In the speech, the general promoted what he called a "discipline-flourishing democratic state" based on a seven-stage road map.
Critics have denounced the road map as a sham because it keeps the military in formal power and bars the National League for Democracy, the opposition party led by democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel peace laureate has been under house arrest for most of the last two decades.
<b>
Riot police were deployed in the main city of Rangoon, where more than 300 people attended a separate ceremony at the NLD's headquarters, including party activists and Western diplomats.</b>
The ceremony was closely monitored by plainclothes police officers.
The National League for Democracy issued a statement Friday, calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.
The international community has condemned Burma over its bloody crackdown of last September's pro-democracy protests, led by Buddhist monks.
<b>The United Nations says at least 31 people were killed in the crackdown. </b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> India's Halt to Burma Arms Sales May Pressure Junta
India has halted all arms sales and transfers to Burma, a development that could increase international pressure on the military junta that brutally crushed the pro-democracy "Saffron Revolution" led by monks this fall.
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