Yesterday, in my article on Bangladesh, I noted that the behaviour of its rising Islamists “is slowly forcing the US and India together over common strategic concerns.”
Actually, Bangladesh is just one of many - and this week, The United States and India signed a 10-year agreement paving the way for stepped up military ties, including joint weapons production and cooperation on missile defense. Titled the “New Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship” (NFDR), it was signed on June 27/05 by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and India’s Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
This is a big deal. A very big deal.
Our readers know that Winds has covered India with enthusiasm and promoted a US-India alliance for a number of reasons. Many of us are fans of the Anglosphere concept, and we also see the economic & cultural trends, historical and geopolitical logic, and moral sense behind such an alliance. I’ve even advocated a leaf from the British historical playbook via a “Mumbai Doctrine” for the Indian Ocean basin. As Pavitr Prabhakar could tell us, after all, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
This agreement doesn’t go that far, but it is a very important step. Under the NFDR, Washington has offered high-tech cooperation, expanded economic ties, and energy cooperation. It will also step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defense and other security initiatives, launch a “defense procurement and production group,” and work to cooperate on military “research, development, testing and evaluation.” Given India’s broken military procurement system, the know-how transfer will be every bit as valuable as the technology transfer - maybe more so.
And the agreement doesn’t stop there.
Myanmar begins freeing nearly 4,000 prisoners
Myanmar’s military government on Thursday began releasing nearly 4,000 prisoners charged by the recently abolished National Intelligence Bureau, state radio and television announced.“There were irregular undertakings by the National Intelligence Bureau before it was dissolved on October 22. A total of 3,937 prisoners who were found to be the victims of irregular proceedings of the NIB were released starting from Nov 18,” a brief official radio announcement said.
Burma frees thousands from jail
It is not known whether any of those freed were political prisoners.State radio said 3,937 prisoners were being released from jails throughout the country but did not provide a timetable
Explosion occurs in Myanmar capital
100 injured in police-Myanmar refugees clash
UN demand release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
United Nations’ General Assembly has demanded the military junta of Burma, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to release the Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.The call for her release was made at the ongoing 59th General Assembly in New York. The UN also urged the junta to respect the result of May 1990 general election in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory, and to carry out democratic changes in the country.
It also demanded the junta to form an independent organisation to investigate into 30 May Dipeyin (Tabayin) incident in which NLD supporters and leaders were brutally attacked, and to put an end to the practice of forced labour and systematic rapes of womenfolk by Burmese soldiers.
Moreover, the UN demanded the junta to cooperate fully with its special envoy Mr. Razali Ismail and human rights envoy Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.
The exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) UN representative Dr. Thaung Tun said the demands mean that the UN is no longer supporting the junta’s seven-point “roadmap” to democracy.
He stressed that the UN’s decisions only empower the General Secretary to act on Burma but he added that the people of Burma themselves must also work harder for the emergence of democracy.
As of today Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a total of:
9 years, 0 months and 25 days
Join the global campaign by MTV and the Burma Campaign UK to free Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi is now serving her third term of house arrest. She was arrested on 30 May, 2003 after the regime’s militia attacked her convoy and killed up to 100 of her supporters.
Click here, it will take 2 seconds of your time.
[update]
Myanmar mass release stirs faint hope for political prisoners
However, Burma junta dividing ethnic groups and Burmese soldiers still raping ethnic women
“I would like [the west] to see us not as a country rather far away whose sufferings do not matter, but as fellow human beings in need of human rights and who could do so much for the world, if we were allowed.”
- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
BURMA ANALYSIS BY EURO-BURMA OFFICE
Buddhist delegation from Berlin to Burma
Hardliners Could Isolate Burma Further
KNU holding emergency conference on Burma’s border
Veteran politicians of Burma urge junta leader to talk to Nobel Laureate
ILO discusses forced labour and latest situation in Burma
Arrests and confiscations continue in Burma
Burma without Khin Nyunt (Online Commentary)
Burma junta tries to appease Buddhist monks
ILO Governing Body’s 291st session to discuss partnerships for “fair globalization”, Belarus, Myanmar and other issues
UN committee raps Myanmar over rights abuses
SC notice to CBI on Myanmar detainees of Operation Leech
Myanmar, Laos Help Reduce Asia’s Golden Triangle Opium Output
Foreign Policy: Resurrecting Non-Alignment
Contest for Myanmar Miss ASEAN Culture underway(gee, guess where this story comes from)
Two shot dead in Thailand’s restive south
Nobel Laureates demand the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
More than 20 Nobel Laureates demanded on 12 November the unconditional release of Burma’s democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.The demand was made at the annual meeting of Nobel Laureates in Rome and a letter containing the demand will be sent to the chairman of Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Senior General Than Shwe.
The attendants of the meeting including the former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former South Korea President Kim Dae Jung, former Polish President Lech Valesa, East Timor’s Foreign Minister Ramos Horta and Mairead Corrigan Maguire strongly urged and called upon the SPDC to restore civil, political and human rights and release the symbol of democracy and freedom Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters.
Also the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s annual human rights report for 2004 has Burma nearly at the top of the list for HR violations.