The Hindu : National : U.S. wants India to push for reform in Myanmar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 18, 2006

National

National

U.S. wants India to push for reform in Myanmar

Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The United States believes that India will soon have a "more forward position" on pushing for reform in Myanmar. Eric John, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, says Washington has been talking with New Delhi so that it should be doing more about Myanmar.

In an interview to The Irrawaddy, a journal on Myanmar published from Chiang Mai, Thailand, he said: "I think we would like India to have a more forward position on pushing for reform in Burma [Myanmar] and, to be honest, this is a discussion that we really have [had] only recently — I mean last year was when we really started working closely with India. "And India is also a gigantic country, and it is hard I think for them to turn their policy around in a month but it is something that we would like ... to happen, I am sure it will happen."

Shifting capital

On the military junta's decision to move the capital from Yangon to Pyinmana for fear of an American invasion, the U.S. official asserted that Washington was not going to "attack Burma, never." "But I don't know how they expect foreign diplomats to move there [to Pyinmana] when the [Myanmar leader Senior-General] Than Shwe won't move there. I mean, he lives in Rangoon [Yangon] now."

Mr. John was clear that the recent Russian sale of MiG-29 aircraft to the military regime was not helpful. "Why the Burmese need MiG-29s. I don't know. It's unfortunate. Because Burma has isolated itself so much I think that isolation has fed paranoia and I presume they feel people are going to attack them. I mean nobody has any intention."

About the U.N. Security Council taking up the Myanmar issue, he said Washington wanted to keep this matter on the Council agenda. With things getting worse in Myanmar, it was "certainly reasonable" to expect the Council to "remain engaged" on the issue. "I don't really want to state publicly that I have a certain timeline for certain actions at the U.N. Security Council, but by no means do I view last December's briefing [on Myanmar by the U.N. to members of the Security Council] as the end of the road for how we engage the U.N. on Burma."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National