Myanmar military supremo begins visit to India

Jul 25, 2010, 12:24 GMT

New Delhi/Yangon - Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe on Sunday began a five-day visit to India amid protests and criticism from human rights groups and Myanmar exiles.

Than Shwe arrived in the temple town of Bodh Gaya in eastern Bihar state, a sacred Buddhist pilgrimage site, officials said.

The 77-year-old military ruler was scheduled to hold prayers in the evening and visit the Bodhi tree under which Lord Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.

He is to be accorded a ceremonial welcome at India's Presidential Palace in the capital on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting with President Pratibha Patil.

Myanmar and India expect to forge closer economic and security ties and sign a clutch of pacts after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Than Shwe on Tuesday, Indian diplomats said.

Than Shwe heads the State Peace and Development Council, as Myanmar's junta styles itself. He last visited India in October 2004.

India has cultivated close diplomatic ties with military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, over the past decade to pursue economic and security interests and counterbalance China's growing clout in the country, which sits between the two Asian giants.

Myanmar government sources said Than Shwe's visit was 'religious in nature,' although it would include discussions on border security and economic cooperation.

Than Shwe's visit, at the invitation of Patil, has drawn criticism from Myanmar exiles and rights groups.

'We strongly recommend that instead of engaging in the current shortsighted relationship with the military regime, India must focus on the long-term mutual interests by encouraging real democratization, peace and stability in her neighbour,' Burma Centre Delhi, an organization representing pro-democracy Myanmar activists and refugees said in a letter to Singh last week.

The International Federation for Human Rights, which represents 164 organizations across the world, said it was 'deeply troubled' by India's decision to welcome Than Shwe and said the junta's 'well- documented human rights abuses includes acts that may amount to war crimes'.

'Maintaining bilateral relations with the Burmese regime without due regard to universal human rights is unbecoming of the world's largest democracy and a responsible world power,' it said.

Myanmar, a former British colony with close economic ties to India prior to independence in 1948, has been under military rule since 1962.

The current regime is deemed a pariah by Western democracies for its refusal to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, and reluctance to introduce democratic reforms.

India, by contrast, is deemed Asia's most dynamic democracy.

   Myanmar's junta is expected to soon announce a date for a general election this year.

   The anticipated polls have already been condemned by Western democracies for excluding Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy.

   Myanmar's new constitution assures the military can control an elected legislature through its veto power in the Senate, where one-quarter of the seats are to be appointees by the military.