George plans meet for democracy in Burma

Barely 10 days ahead of Myanmar8217;s head of state Than Shwe8217;s visit to India, former defence minister George Fernandes has decided t...

Barely 10 days ahead of Myanmar8217;s head of state Than Shwe8217;s visit to India, former defence minister George Fernandes has decided to organise an international convention for restoration of democracy in Myanmar.

That the convention, starting on Friday, could prove to be an embarrassment for New Delhi is something Fernandes does not deny, but adds that he was not informed in time to call off or postpone the convention. 8216;8216;The Foreign Secretary did call me a few days ago with a request to postpone the convention. But it is too late now and I have informed the government that all arrangements had been made for the convention. We cannot call it off now,8217;8217; he said.

Clearly Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran8217;s plea to Fernandes has not worked. 8216;8216;I had written a letter to the External Affairs Minister a month ago informing him about the convention. If somebody had conveyed to me at that stage about the Than Shwe visit, we could have looked for another date,8217;8217; Fernandes said.

Incidentally, this is the second such convention taking place after eight years. The first one was held way back in January 1996 and, according to Fernandes, even present External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh had presented a paper then.

But Fernandes says he understands the government8217;s predicament as he was in the same position not too long ago. 8216;8216;As a Defence Minister, I did what was right for my country. But I also have my individual commitments to issues such as human rights abuse and I feel that I can continue that work now.8217;8217; Other Samata Party leaders like Digvijay Singh, the former Minister of State for External Affairs, had a simple answer to why the convention was not held earlier. 8216;8216;We were in power during six out of those eight years. So, obviously we couldn8217;t have held it then.8217;8217;

However, it is known that Myanmarese students fighting against military rule in their country have been camping at Fernandes8217; official residence at 3, Krishna Menon Marg. And they had even held seminars and discussion, without much publicity, while he was Defence Minister, said sources.

The three-day convention will have participants from 14 countries, including India and Myanmar. Fernandes, in fact, alleged that several participants were not issued visas for the convention, which includes prominent personalities behind the struggle for democracy in Myanmar.

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8216;8216;I don8217;t know why they were not issued visas. But I had along with my letter to the External Affairs Minister also requested facilitation in the issuance of visas,8217;8217; Fernandes said.