Burma Foriegn Min: India is our motherland

[Guest guest]

The West is too far from us, India is more understanding'

 

Foreign Minister of Myanmar(Burma) U Win Aung is a key member of the

pro-India faction led by the increasingly powerful Vice Senior-

General Maung Aye within the Myanmarese `junta.'

 

Yangon is slowly emerging out of its international isolation — it is

now a member of the ASEAN and has already allowed UN special envoy

Ismail Razali nine times into the country for talks with the jailed

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

 

 

China remains an old and trusted friend, says Win Aung, having

returned from China only a fortnight ago, but points out that India

is an ``understanding neighbour''. Excerpts of an interview with

Jyoti Malhotra

 

Q.What brings you to India?

 

Friendship. We are friends with all our neighbours and India, of

course, India is a big neighbour and very important to our foreign

policy. I bring with me the friendship, understanding and will to

cooperate from our people.

 

Q.Why is India important to Myanmar?

 

We are surrounded by Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Laos and India, of

which India and China are the largest countries. We regard India not

only as an important neighbour, but also as a country with which we

are linked culturally and historically. We say that we are

descendants of the Sakya clan, of Lord Buddha. So India is our

motherland.

 

Q.How do you regard your other big neighbour, China?

 

China is also very important for us because we share a 1,300-km long

border and we also have close historical relations. Our history is

made up of contacts between India and China and we were in the

middle. So both nations are important to us.

 

Q.Is Myanmar, then, a geostrategic prize between India and China?

 

Sometimes its a prize, sometimes it is a reason for our suffering.

Look at our history. When the British came to Myanmar and wanted to

expand their trade to China, we were caught in the middle.

 

We had to fight three wars with the British and lost all three, after

which we were annexed into the British Empire. Similarly, with the

Japanese during World War II. So you can see that the reason for our

suffering was proximity with the big powers.

 

Q.How are things within Myanmar?

 

We faced a crisis soon after independence in 1948. The British wanted

to give us back our country split into several parts, (so) they

planted the seeds of mistrust in our people... we had to solve these

problems. Chapter 10 of our constitution allowed secession after 10

years, but what would have happened to this land?

 

We knew that once the process of disintegration began it would not

stop. The survival of our nation as Myanmar and as a union would be

difficult. That's why we are trying to solve our problems once and

for all. Not to have a military coup again to save the nation from

falling down. We realised that we had to expand our base and develop

the whole country, including all the remote areas to create a sense

of union spirit.

 

Q.As a Foreign minister you have travelled all over the world. Do you

think that the West interferes too much in your country?

 

(Laughs) The West doesn't understand us. They understood only one

thing. They thought that changing personalities alone would be the

solution. They didn't want us to share our views with them. They

would like to push their own values on us, their own thinking. They

don't want to listen to our arguments. They don't want to listen to

our history and to our background.

 

Of course, there are people who understand, but those who don't, I

think they are like people pretending to sleep. The West is too far

from us. I think our neighbours, like India, have a better

understanding of us.