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Now Myanmar targets anti-India
rebels
By Sudha Ramachandran
NEW DELHI - Myanmar's army is said to be
cracking down on anti-India rebels operating from its
territory. The military operations come close on the
heels of a similar offensive by the Bhutanese army on
anti-India rebels based in Bhutan.
Among the
rebels targeted in Myanmar are those of the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland, who have been fighting
for an independent homeland in India for Naga
tribespeople in the remote northeast since the early
1980s. India and Myanmar share a 1,650-kilometer border
between northwestern Myanmar and India's troubled
northeastern states, where more than 50 groups are
fighting New Delhi's rule in some of the world's
longest-running insurgencies.
On December 15,
Bhutan's army launched a military offensive against
three anti-India rebel groups, including the United
Liberation Front of Asom, the Kamtapur Liberation
Organization and the National Democratic Front of
Bodoland. While some allege that Bhutan acted under
pressure from India, there is considerable evidence to
suggest that the Himalayan kingdom acted against the
militant groups as they were beginning to pose a threat
to Bhutan's monarchy and internal security. The rebels
had set up about 30 camps in Bhutan. The military
operations were launched after dialogue between the
Bhutanese government and rebel leaders based in Bhutan
failed to bear fruit.
The military operations,
the first-ever offensive action to be taken by the
Bhutanese army, is said to have dealt a significant blow
to the militant network based in Bhutan. Hundreds of
militants were killed or captured and their camps
destroyed.
The Bhutanese army's successful
operation against the rebels - the nature of the role
that the Indian security forces played in the operations
is still unclear - was widely acclaimed in India.
Commending the Bhutanese government, an editorial in the
Bangalore-based English daily Deccan Herald called on
"India's other neighbors ... [to] draw lessons from
Bhutan's admirable action on anti-India militants".
While admitting that India's relations with Bhutan were
different from those with other neighbors, the editorial
pointed out that "what is significant in Bhutan's action
is that it resulted not just from its concern for India
but from the recognition that cracking down on militant
camps serves Bhutan's interests as well".
The
success of the Bhutanese offensive prompted the Indian
government to step up pressure on countries such as
Bangladesh and Myanmar to act on anti-India insurgents
taking shelter there. While India has been demanding
that the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments act against
anti-India militants based on their soil for many years,
this demand gathered a new urgency after the Bhutanese
operations. This was because many of the rebels who had
been based in Bhutan managed to escape the Bhutanese
army operations and melted away into India's restive
northeastern states and into Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Sources in the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs
told Asia Times Online that the gains made in Bhutan
would be negated if the militants were allowed to remain
active in Myanmar and Bangladesh. India has been talking
to Bangladesh and Myanmar for some time and these talks
have borne fruit with regard to the latter, an official
in the Home Ministry said.
About a week after
the launch of the Bhutanese operations, Myanmar Foreign
Minister U Win Aung told reporters in New Delhi that his
country would take "whatever action is necessary" to
"flush out Indian insurgent camps" and that his
government would "cooperate with the Indian government"
in this matter. In the last week of December, India's
chief of army staff, General N C Vij, announced that
India might launch joint military operations with
Myanmar against rebels based in that country.
"Army-to-army relations between India and Myanmar have
been very good and we have been helping them," he said.
In Yangon, a Myanmar government spokesman would
not comment directly on any military action, except to
say: "Myanmar strictly abides by its policy of giving no
breeding grounds to elements that would harm its
neighbors."
This is not the first time Myanmar
has cracked down on Indian rebels. It has helped the
Indian security forces against the rebels at least three
times in the past 10 years.
India's relations
with Myanmar, especially with its military government,
have been far from smooth. Myanmar's recent offensive
against anti-India rebels based on its soil indicates
how much the bilateral relationship has changed over the
past decade, points out an official in the Indian
Ministry of External Affairs. India is now quite
comfortable dealing with the generals in Yangon.
The military junta's brutal crackdown on
pro-democracy activists in Myanmar, the arrest of Aung
San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for
Democracy, and the government's rejection of the
people's mandate resulted in a significant cooling in
India-Myanmar relations in the 1988-92 period.
New Delhi was vocal in condemning Myanmar's
military and in championing the cause of democracy. In
1995, India even conferred the prestigious Jawaharlal
Nehru Award for International Understanding on Suu Kyi.
However, several developments resulted in India
rethinking its policy toward Myanmar. One was the
growing relationship between China and the Myanmar
generals. China's ties with Myanmar cover a wide range
of areas including defense, the economy and development
of infrastructure. Particularly worrying to India was
the defense relationship and the increasing Chinese
naval presence in the Bay of Bengal. According to Indian
intelligence reports, the Chinese-built radar facility
on Myanmar's Coco Islands (near India's Andaman and
Nicobar Islands) provides Beijing with input on India's
missile-testing facilities in its east-coast state of
Orissa.
Besides, India realized that if it
wanted the government to act against the anti-India
rebel camps in Myanmar, it would have to learn to work
with the generals. Economic factors, too, prompted a
rethink in policy. If India wanted to deepen trade ties
with Southeast Asia, relations with Myanmar would have
to improve.
Consequently, India reviewed its
Myanmar policy. From a policy of constantly criticizing
the generals for subverting democracy, it shifted to a
policy of non-interference in Myanmar's internal
affairs. Now it speaks of reconciliation in Myanmar
rather than backing Suu Kyi against the generals.
While some describe India's changing
relationship as unprincipled, others see it as
pragmatic. It is in the context of this "business
relationship" with the generals that the ongoing
military offensive against the anti-India rebels in
Myanmar must be seen.
While the Indian
government is pleased with Myanmar's action on the rebel
camps, Myanmar dissidents living in India are worried.
They fear that India will send them back. There is a
small group of pro-democracy activists in India. A few
guerrilla groups operating against Myanmar's military
are based in the northeast. "India could abandon us as
part of a quid pro quo deal with the military," said a
pro-democracy activist based in New Delhi.
In
contrast to Bhutan and Myanmar, Bangladesh has been less
cooperative with regard to acting against anti-India
militants based on its soil. Indian allegations a year
ago that operatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence, al-Qaeda and jihadi groups were directing
terrorist acts against India from Bangladeshi soil
evoked an angry response from Dhaka. And now, Bangladesh
has denied that anti-India militants from the northeast
have taken shelter in the country.
India is
hoping that its other neighbors will act as have Bhutan
and Myanmar to remove camps run by anti-India militants
in their territory. Some analysts have pointed out that
India's relationship with Bhutan is at a different plane
and to expect others to act the way Bhutan has is
unrealistic. After all, anti-India rebels are used by
India's other neighbors to gain leverage vis-a-vis
Delhi.
India has been accused of double
standards for being willing to do business with
Myanmar's generals while refusing to talk to Pakistani
President General Pervez Musharraf. An Indian foreign
affairs official told this correspondent in May 2002
that "unlike the general to our west [Musharraf in
Pakistan], the generals to our east [the junta in
Myanmar] do not undermine our security interests and are
willing to cooperate on an array of issues".
The
recent breakthrough in India-Pakistan relations has
changed India's position with regard to talking to the
general to the west of India. The question is whether he
will act like his counterparts in Myanmar and crack down
on anti-India terrorist camps based in his country.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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