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Bangkok Post (6/5/98): Burma blasts



Burma blasts minister for China claims

Burma's junta yesterday blasted Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes
for accusing Rangoon of allowing China the use of its territory to set up
military installations.

"It is very regretful that India's defence minister chose to claim without
substantial evidence that China is using Burma's Coco Islands for strategic
defence measures," a top junta official said in a statement received in
Bangkok.

The outspoken Indian defence minister sparked heated debate for his
comments on Monday that China was New Delhi's number one enemy.

He said China was training Burma's army and had set up a "massive
electronic surveillance establishment" on the Coco Islands, at the northern
tip on India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Mr Fernandes also accused China of stockpiling nuclear weapons in Tibet
along India's borders.

But the Burmese official said Mr Fernands was using the threat of Chinese
aggression as justification for regional nuclear expansion.

"A myth has been unprecedentedly created to serve as a pretext.... to
justify the nuclear and defend build-up in the region," he said.

Burma denies Indian claims

BURMA on Tuesday denied an Indian minister's statement that China had built
a sophisticated eletronic surveillance base on a Burmese island from where
Beijing could monitor Indian defence activity.
" It is regretful that India's defence minister chose to claim without
substantial evidence that China is using Burma's Coco Islands for strategic
defence measures " a statement from the ruling Burmese military junta said.

India's Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Sunday China was using a
base in the islands, just 40 kilometres from the northern tip of India's
Andaman Islands, that could monitor Indian defence activity along the
country's east cost.