Indian and Burmese Army join to hun

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Subject: Indian and Burmese Army join to hunt rebels


  INDIAN AND BURMESE ARMIES JOIN TO HUNT REBELS BY BORDER
  By SANJOY HAZARIKA
  c.1995 N.Y. Times News Service
  
     GUWAHATI, India  For the first time since the 1980s, Indian and
  Burmese troops have been cooperating in a military operation
  against Indian insurgents, trapping the rebels in a pincers
  movement near the border, intelligence officials and diplomats say.
     The cooperation is a result of a significant shift in India's
  relationship with Myanmar, formerly Burma, following a trade
  agreement between the two nations in April and quiet diplomacy and
  low-key official visits in the last three years.
     The military operation could lay the foundation for a new
  strategic alliance in the region. China has long had close
  relations with Myanmar, including arms sales and other commerce.
     The joint operation against three groups of insurgents began in
  early May, the officials said in interviews here and in New Delhi.
  Guwahati is the main commercial center of India's troubled and
  remote northeast region, which has a diverse population of fiercely
  independent indigenous groups.
     The rebels are seeking independence from India, but there is
  limited cooperation among the groups.
     Under a military agreement between the two countries in 1987,
  they planned to improve coordination and to conduct joint
  operations against the many insurgent groups that are based in
  Myanmar, including those that fight against India.
     India had previously sent its troops across the border in
  pursuit of rebels many times but with little success in the
  difficult terrain.
     Relations between the two countries, however, cooled when the
  military leaders in Myanmar began a brutal campaign against the
  democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under
  house arrest since 1989.
     The breakoff in trade between the two countries forced the
  states on the eastern edge of India to import goods from rice to
  machinery and textiles from other parts of the country. The long
  distances and poor transportation made the goods very expensive.
     As a result, a vast illegal trade in consumer goods and timber
  as well as weapons and drugs  flourished, often with the tacit
  support of officials on both sides.
     Indeed, Myanmar is the world's largest supplier of heroin,
  according to the U.S. State Department, and the rebels have been
  involved with transporting the drug through the northeast region,
  where the forests and hills make patrolling difficult.
     Seeking to restore the traditional trade along the border,
  political groups in northeastern India pressed the government to
  resume ties with Myanmar.
     The joint military operation, however, has caused concern among
  the small group of Burmese dissidents in India about their future.
  At least three armed guerrilla units operate against the Burmese
  army from their camps in Mizoram.
     ``India is a democratic country which has given us shelter, but
  we are opposed to any cooperation with the military regime in
  Burma, including trade,'' said Thit Swe, an exiled member of
  parliament.
     According to intelligence accounts of the recent crackdown on
  rebels, a group of about 250 heavily armed rebels received a
  shipment of arms through Bangladesh.
     Informers in Bangladesh tipped off the Burmese military, who
  laid an ambush, driving the rebels into the heavy jungle of
  southern Mizoram state in India, where the Indian troops were
  waiting.
     At least 35 rebels were killed on the Indian side and more than
  50 were captured in the biggest single loss for the rebels in more
  than a decade, officials said.
     Paresh Baruah, leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam,
  one of the rebel groups seeking independence from India, denied
  that the rebels had suffered heavy casualties and said they had
  been able ``to wriggle out of a difficult situation.''
     He contended that the Burmese pulled out of the campaign last
  week after India announced that it was giving the Jawaharlal Nehru
  Award for International Understanding to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.
     Burmese diplomats did not respond to requests for comment, but
  Indian officials said that joint military operations were likely to
  continue.