Us body will fund Burma, Tibet resi

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          US BODY WILL FUND BURMA, TIBET RESISTANCE FROM DELHI

The Asian Age (New Delhi)
February 13, 2001

By Seema Mustafa

New Delhi, Feb. 12 The US National Endowment for Democracy, which has
been
cleared to set up an office here, will use India as a base for its
campaign against the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the military regime
in Burma. It has used India-based organizations to siphon at least
$400,000 in 1999 alone to groups in Tibet and Burma without even a token
protest from the Indian government.

The joint vision statement signed by former US President Bill Clinton
and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has provided for the setting up
of the NED office in India. The move had been resisted by earlier
governments.

Records show that the National Endowment for Democracy, set up by the
Reagan administration on the advice of Mr Bill Casey, who went on to
become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has designed its
activities to further the strategic objectives of the US government in
the regions. It was made full use of by Mr Clinton and observers here
are of the view that it will be further strengthened under President
George W. Bush.

National Security Advisory board member B. Raman, who was earlier with
the Research and Analysis Wing, has noted that the US organisation ?has
been mainly active against those countries and regimes which are
perceived as unfavourable or detrimental to US interests and not against
those considered essential to US interests. For example, while they have
been active against the military regime in Myanmar, they were not
equally active against the former Suharto regime in Indonesia or against
the damage caused to democracy in Pakistan by the military-intelligence
establishment.?

Details of some of the India-based organisations through which funds
were transferred are available here. The US agency sent $150,000 for the
Democratic Voice of Burma to support its short-wave radio programmes and
for its field offices in Thailand and India.

The National Coalition for Democracy was given $55,000 to enable the
exiled government of Burma to operate two communications centres, in New
Delhi and Bangkok. Ffity thousand dollars were made available to
Non-violence International to support the work of the India-based
Committee for Non-violent Action in Burma.

The US agency also made available $20,000 for Tibet Times newspaper,
published thrice a month in Dharamsala, and another $30,000 for the
Tibet Multimedia Centre producing propaganda material for distribution
in India, Nepal and Tibet.

This is also based in Dharamsala. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights
and Democracy, also at Dharamsala, received $15,000 for distributing
10,000 copies of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights while $25,000 was released for the publication of the Tibetan
Review, a monthly journal based in New Delhi.

The National Endowment for Democracy functions directly and through
several associate organisations. These include the International
Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs, Centre for International Private Enterprise and
the Free Trade Union Institute.

Mr Raman, who had done a detailed analysis of the NED, has observed,
?The late Casey saw this as a way of the US developing an effective
political action capability against unfriendly regimes without
circumventing the post-Watergate Congressional curbs on CIA covert
actions against foreign political leaders.?

The NED was instrumental in bringing down the Milosevic regime in
Yugoslavia. The Washington Post, in a report filed on December 1 last
year, said, ?US-funded consultants played a crucial role behind the
scenes in virtually every facet of the anti-Milosevic drive, running
tracking polls, training thousands of Opposition activists and helping
to organise a vitally important parallel vote count. US taxpayers paid
for 5,000 cans of spray paint used by student activists to scrawl
anti-Milosevic graffiti on walls across Serbia, and 2.5 million stickers
with the slogan ?He?s Finished,? which became the revolution?s
catchphrase.?

?The US democracy-building effort in Serbia was a curious mixture of
secrecy and openness. In principle, it was an overt operation, funded by
congressional appropriations of around $10 million for fiscal 1999 and
$31 million for 2000.?



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<center><b><font color="#0000FF"><font size=+1>US BODY WILL FUND BURMA,
TIBET RESISTANCE FROM DELHI</font></font></b></center>

<p><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+1>The Asian Age (New Delhi)</font></font>
<br><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+1>February 13, 2001</font></font>
<p><font size=+1>By <font color="#800000">Seema Mustafa</font></font>
<p><font size=+1><font color="#FF0000">New Delhi, Feb. 12</font> The US
National Endowment for Democracy, which has been</font>
<br><font size=+1>cleared to set up an office here, will use India as a
base for its campaign against the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the military
regime in Burma. It has used India-based organizations to siphon at least
$400,000 in 1999 alone to groups in Tibet and Burma without even a token
protest from the Indian government.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The joint vision statement signed by former US President
Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has provided for the
setting up of the NED office in India. The move had been resisted by earlier
governments.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Records show that the National Endowment for Democracy,
set up by the Reagan administration on the advice of Mr Bill Casey, who
went on to become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has
designed its activities to further the strategic objectives of the US government
in the regions. It was made full use of by Mr Clinton and observers here
are of the view that it will be further strengthened under President George
W. Bush.</font>
<p><font size=+1>National Security Advisory board member B. Raman, who
was earlier with the Research and Analysis Wing, has noted that the US
organisation ?has been mainly active against those countries and regimes
which are perceived as unfavourable or detrimental to US interests and
not against those considered essential to US interests. For example, while
they have been active against the military regime in Myanmar, they were
not equally active against the former Suharto regime in Indonesia or against
the damage caused to democracy in Pakistan by the military-intelligence
establishment.?</font>
<p><font size=+1>Details of some of the India-based organisations through
which funds were transferred are available here. The US agency sent $150,000
for the Democratic Voice of Burma to support its short-wave radio programmes
and for its field offices in Thailand and India.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The National Coalition for Democracy was given $55,000
to enable the exiled government of Burma to operate two communications
centres, in New Delhi and Bangkok. Ffity thousand dollars were made available
to Non-violence International to support the work of the India-based Committee
for Non-violent Action in Burma.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The US agency also made available $20,000 for Tibet Times
newspaper, published thrice a month in Dharamsala, and another $30,000
for the Tibet Multimedia Centre producing propaganda material for distribution
in India, Nepal and Tibet.</font>
<p><font size=+1>This is also based in Dharamsala. The Tibetan Centre for
Human Rights and Democracy, also at Dharamsala, received $15,000 for distributing
10,000 copies of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
while $25,000 was released for the publication of the Tibetan Review, a
monthly journal based in New Delhi.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The National Endowment for Democracy functions directly
and through several associate organisations. These include the International
Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs, Centre for International Private Enterprise and the Free Trade
Union Institute.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Mr Raman, who had done a detailed analysis of the NED,
has observed, ?The late Casey saw this as a way of the US developing an
effective political action capability against unfriendly regimes without
circumventing the post-Watergate Congressional curbs on CIA covert actions
against foreign political leaders.?</font>
<p><font size=+1>The NED was instrumental in bringing down the Milosevic
regime in Yugoslavia. The Washington Post, in a report filed on December
1 last year, said, ?US-funded consultants played a crucial role behind
the scenes in virtually every facet of the anti-Milosevic drive, running
tracking polls, training thousands of Opposition activists and helping
to organise a vitally important parallel vote count. US taxpayers paid
for 5,000 cans of spray paint used by student activists to scrawl anti-Milosevic
graffiti on walls across Serbia, and 2.5 million stickers with the slogan
?He?s Finished,? which became the revolution?s catchphrase.?</font>
<p><font size=+1>?The US democracy-building effort in Serbia was a curious
mixture of secrecy and openness. In principle, it was an overt operation,
funded by congressional appropriations of around $10 million for fiscal
1999 and $31 million for 2000.?</font>
<p>&nbsp;</html>

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