Indian foreign minister grilled on Burma

Both the US and British ambassadors to Thailand, who attended the academic gathering at Chulalongkorn University's Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS), questioned India's close ties with Burma's ruling junta and refusal to pressure the regime to introduce democratic reforms.

"The cardinal principle of our foreign policy is non-interference in the domestic affairs of any country," said Mukherjee.

When asked how India, one of the few democratic success stories in Asia, could support a regime that has one of the world's worst records for human rights abuses and suppression of the most basic political rights, the foreign minister answered, "It is essentially the job of the people in the country to decide what government they want."

Burma's people have already decided they don't want the current regime but their decision has not been honoured.

In the last general election Burma held in 1990 the people provided a landslide victory to the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San.

But after the election, Burma's junta refused to hand over power to the NLD, claiming that the country first needed a new constitution before it would be safe for civilians to rule.  

 Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, thousands of NLD members have been arrested since 1990 and the regime continues to crack down on the slightest show of dissent, such as recent protests against a steep hike in fuel prices.

ndia and China, two of the world's fastest growing economies with keen interests in Burma's vast natural gas reserves, have come under increasing diplomatic criticism for failing to use their close relations with Burma's military to pressure for political change in the country.

Burma, formerly known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman General Ne Win overthrew the elected government of Ne Win, the country's first post-independence prime minister.

Mukherjee, deflecting a chorus of criticisms from diplomats and journalists in Bangkok, noted that anyone familiar with South Asian history will know that India has had to learn to live with military regimes as neighbours for quite some time.

The foreign minister was scheduled to meet with his Thai counterpart Nitya Pibulsonggram later Friday.//dpa