By IANS
New York : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee urged his counterpart from Myanmar to consider an inquiry into the use of force to quell pro-democracy protesters as the US piled up pressure on India and China “to do more” to resolve the crisis in the troubled country.
“As a close and friendly neighbour, India hoped to see peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar,” Mukherjee told Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U Nyan Win here Monday.
Reiterating India’s earlier stand, Mukherjee called for quickening the process of national reconciliation and political reform initiated by the government of Myanmar and hoped that this process would be “taken forward expeditiously”.
In a clear toughening of New Delhi’s stance towards violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in Myanmar, Mukherjee suggested that the Myanmar government could consider undertaking an inquiry into recent incidents and the use of force to quell the protests.
Mukherjee also discussed the situation in Myanmar with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, India’s permanent mission to the UN said.
The suggestion about an inquiry was a significant advance over an earlier statement by Mukherjee and another by the external affairs ministry that called for inclusive and broad-based political reforms and national reconciliation in Myanmar.
The toughening of stance indicates increasing international pressure over New Delhi, which was seen to be mild in its response compared to the chorus of strong international condemnation of repressive methods used by the junta in stamping down the largest popular upsurge in Myanmar since pro-democracy protests in 1988.
India had to also face flak from human rights groups and exiled Myanmarese leaders, especially after Petroleum Minister Murli Deora’s visit to Myanmar ten days ago that coincided with the peaking of pro-democracy protests.
India has been guarded in its response because of its substantial strategic and economic stakes in Myanmar. New Delhi was a staunch supporter of the pro-democracy movement till the early nineties, but changed its policy later to one of realpolitik and engagement after Beijing had established its influence in Yangon and cornered most of the lucrative energy and infrastructure projects.
Another reason why New Delhi needed the junta was to check the activities of insurgents in India’s northeast states who often took shelter in the neighbouring country.
In Washington, State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey noted that the US in a joint statement with the European Union last week, specifically called on India, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to do more to support the cause of political dialogue and of freedom for the people of Myanmar.
The US would certainly like to see “those countries use the influence that they have because of their political relations, as well as their commercial and economic relations with Burma to put pressure on the regime to make those changes actually occur,” he said.
Casey said the US was not trying to dictate to India or China how they should develop their national policies, but “it’s very clear though that they have an influence over that government, that they can have more of an impact if they choose to do so.
“And we’ll leave it to them to determine specifically how. But we want to see them take serious and concrete actions to push the Burmese (Myanmar) government in the right direction.”
Asked what specific action the US wanted, Casey said if people would like to emulate US sanctions that would be fine. “But in terms of what specific countries might do to be able to do this, I don’t think the Indian Government or the Chinese Government needs me to tell them what the levers in the diplomatic toolbox are that they have. And I think we’d just like to see them use them,” he said.
“It’s critical that the countries that have the most influence in Burma (Myanmar) right now, including the Chinese, the Indians and the Asean nations, engage in a serious effort with us to change their behaviour,” he said and added that sanctions like any other diplomatic tool can only do so much.
Casey said: “I don’t think it’s any surprise that sanctions of and by themselves have not led to a specific change of behaviour that we’d all like to see.”