WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. first lady Laura Bush -- in a rare foray into foreign policy -- called on Myanmar's military junta to "step aside," give up the "terror campaigns" against its people and allow for a democratic Myanmar in a commentary published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal.
"Gen. Than Shwe and his deputies are a friendless regime," Bush said. "They should step aside to make way for a unified Burma [Myanmar] governed by legitimate leaders.
Burma's murderous regime has some very staunch and powerful friends:
New Delhi, October 9
Tribune News Service (India)
New Delhi’s ties with Myanmar are getting deeper and richer by the day and have already acquired strategic dimensions. Far from distancing itself from the military junta, New Delhi is stepping up its involvement with Myanmar in coming weeks when it will finalise the Kaladan project with Myanmar.
Kaladan project is the centre-piece of the diplomatic and strategic edifice that India is busy building with Myanmar over the past few years. Kaladan is an important trans-border infrastructure project that will let the land-locked North-Eastern states gain easy access to the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar. It envisages a multi-modal transport corridor and building of a pipeline that will bring natural gas from Myanmar into the North-East. The economic, security and geopolitical stakes for India are so high in Myanmar that it is prepared to overlook the growing Western criticism of its engagement with Yangon.
Now if Pundita wanted to be fair to India she would quote the rest of the report, which is that Delhi timidly hopes the junta will talk with Aun Sung Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders. But this situation is not about being fair and balanced. It's about a crisis in which thousands of innocent lives hang in the balance.
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