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The
government of India may find it comfortable to maintain the
strategic relationship with the military rulers of Burma
(Myanmar), but a group of Indian journalists have come out to
protest against the military junta for its anti-media attitude.
The state union of journalists from Manipur, a Burma bordering
Northeast Indian province had recently made a historic step
expressing solidarity with the detained Burmese journalists
inside the South East Asian country. The focus of the cohesion
was U Win Tin, a spirited journalist, who had been under
detention for more than 18 years in a Rangoon (Yangon) prison
and already been identified as the longest serving journalist
detainees in the globe.
The All
Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU), in a press statement
on July 4 demanded the immediate release of the Burmese
journalist-editor U Win Tin, 78, arrested by the military junta
in 1989 on the same date. The former editor of Hantharwaddy
Daily (in Burmese language), Mr. Win Tin was among hundred
others, who were arrested during a military crackdown throughout
the country following the mass uprising in late Eighties.
It may be
mentioned that Mr. Win Tin was detained on July 4, 1989,
primarily for his critical views against the ruling junta.
Moreover, he used to advise the Burmese democracy icon, Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi on various aspects relating to the National
League for Democracy (NLD), a political party led by the great
lady. There are allegations that the elderly journalist Mr. Win
Tin has been subjected to continued torture in the prison and
denied proper food and medical attention.
"We have
protested against the elongated detention of all Burmese
journalists and appealed to the authorities to show minimum
respect for those journalists behind bars including Mr. Win
Tin," said J. Maibam, the AMWJU general secretary, while talking
to this writer from Imphal, the capital of Manipur (which is
adjacent to Sagaing division of Myanmar).
Mr. Win Tin
is one of more than 1,000 people currently in Burmese prisons
for exercising their rights to free speech and free assembly,
claimed Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the human rights expert of United
Nations few weeks back. He also disclosed that Mr. Win Tin
received three additional prison terms since his original
incarceration in 1989.
U Win Tin
was honored with the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom
Prize, the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of
Freedom Award and Reporters Without Borders prize for his
relentless efforts to promote freedom of expression in a land of
oppressive regime.
Reporters
without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists had
already called on the military junta to immediately release Mr.
Win Tin. The Southeast Asian Press Alliance also issued another
appeal for immediate release Mr. Win Tin, who served his first
three years in jail as rigorous imprisonment. His jail term
was later extended to 21 years. Earlier, Burma Media
Association, a forum of exiled Burmese journalists renewed its
call for the release of Mr. Win Tin from prison.
The entire
media in Myanmar is surviving under the strict censorship of the
military junta. The journalists are outright prevented from
covering the activities of the Nobel laureate Ms Suu Kyi, who
has been serving house arrest since May 2003. Many news portal,
which are traditionally critical to the military regime are
banned in the country. The local media (mostly in Burmese) is
tightlipped while reporting the ongoing atrocities and human
right violation by the military throughout the country.
More
recently, the Reporters Without Borders singled out the ruling
SPDC chief General Than Shwe as a menace to press freedom. The
Paris based media rights body had accused the SPDC for arresting
not less than 50 working journalists and maintaining absolute
control over the media, where the only daily newspaper of the
country 'The New light of Myanmar' is used as its mouthpiece.
Even then,
New Delhi, which represents the largest democracy in the world,
is determined to maintain the strategic relationship with Yangon
(now Nay Pyi Taw). During a recent visit to Northeast, India's
foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee once again reiterated the
significance of the relationship with Myanmar. Talking to a
group of journalists and civil society representatives in
Shillong (capital of Meghalaya), Mr. Mukherjee highlighted the
importance of Myanmar for pragmatic implementation of New
Delhi's Look East policy. "Developing ties with the Association
of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) has been a major aim of the
Look East policy," Mr. Mukherjee pointed out.
Referring
Myanmar in particular, the minister also added that India had
already involved in a variety of cross border development
projects with the country in diverse fields as roads, railways,
telecommunications, IT, science and technology, power etc. to
improve connectivity between Northeast and Myanmar.
India has
however earned brickbats from international communities for
maintaining strategic ties with the military dictators of
Myanmar, who had been responsible for elongated detention of Ms
Suu Kyi. In the last general election held in 1990, NLD
candidates won almost 80% of seats, but the ruling junta denied
handing over the power to the party. Rather the military rulers
started a reign of repression against the democratic forces,
which compelled hundred thousands political activists, student
leaders and journalists to flee their own country.
Recently, the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) had warned the SPDC for ignoring the ILO
recommendations to prevent the practice of forced labor in the
country. "The imposition of forced labor continues to be
widespread, particularly by the Burmese army, to which specific
instructions should be issued,' ILO officials asserted.
For the
civil societies of India too, Myanmar remains a land of
atrocities, human rights violation with notorious press
censorship. But still, New Delhi is not convinced to snap ties
with the military rulers primarily for three reasons. First,
India is very much concerned with the presence of Northeastern
militants in northern Myanmar. New Delhi believes that many
armed outfits namely NSCN (both K and IM factions), ULFA, PLA,
PREPAK, UNLF, KYKL, KCP etc (all are fighting New Delhi for
various demands ranging from sovereignty to self-rule) run their
training camps inside the thick jungles of northern Burma.
Secondly,
Myanmar can play an important role, as described by the foreign
minister Mr Mukherjee in realizing India's look east policy,
where India proposes land connectivity with various South East
Asian countries for trades. Moreover, India wants to prevent
China 's increasing presence in Myanmar that might lead to geo-
strategic implications for New Delhi and hence emphasizes on
engaging the present Burmese rulers in greater economic
cooperation.
July 2007
The author
is a Guwahati based journalist and the editor of Natun Somoy. He
can be reached at
navathakuria@gmail.com |
