Tidbits from Southasian region

Southasian Briefs India/Tibet  
'Trade through the border'
The Nathula pass between Sikkim and Tibet reopened at the beginning of May, a month earlier than last year. It is now set to stay open through November, two months later than last year. At the opening ceremony, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh described the trading-time extension as a "small beginning" in the effort to start full trading between China and India through Nathula. "But we still have a long way to go," he cautioned. Ramesh went on to say that priorities now include upgrading the trade-related infrastructure on the Indian side of the pass, and coming to a new agreement with China that moves "from border trade to trade through the border". In addition, Ramesh noted, the list of tradable goods needs to be expanded. With the current list being based on traditionally traded items from a half-century ago (before Nathula was closed off, following the 1962 war), India's current exports are almost exclusively confined to rice. Sri Lanka Out, OCHA
In late April, the Colombo government indicated that it wanted the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to leave the island's most troubled areas. OCHA originally set up its Sri Lanka office in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami to oversee rehabilitation work, but has since remained to assist with communities that have been adversely affected by the ethnic conflict. Now the government is accusing OCHA of "overstaying" its mandate, and has ordered it to vacate the country's north and east. OCHA officials had reportedly floated the possibility of acting as a human-rights monitor, even though some UN officials say that the agency is unequipped to do so. India Minding Meghalaya's migrants
The day after the 1 May deadline set by Adivasi leaders in Meghalaya for all migrant labourers to leave the state, the 'quit notice' was rescinded. Meghalaya is home to a large number of economic migrants, many from Nepal and Bangladesh, who work in the state's many coalmines. From 28 March, when the warnings were issued by the Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Peoples (FKJGP), panic had spread quickly through the state's migrant communities. FKJGP leaders, threatening "dire consequences", warned that if the state government were not to deal seriously with "illegal immigration", locals would have to take matters into their own hands. In addition to economic and cultural worries, FKJGP claims that the migrants have brought "illegal activities" along with them, such as gambling. Nonetheless, officials professed not to be particularly worried by the activists' demands. Citing a long history of anti-immigrant sentiment, Chief Minister D D Lapang said that the FKJGP warning should not be taken "too seriously". The government did acquiesce to the FKJGP demands enough to promise to crack down on illegal 'infiltration', and to implement a policy requiring all migrant workers to register with the police. The Maldives  
Male 'collapsing'
Reports again indicate that the island of Male is dangerously near capacity. Cracks in the reef surrounding the island, particularly off the north and northeast sides, were originally discovered five years ago. Now those have been observed to have worsened significantly. "The worst possible scenario is that Male will fall into pieces," said Mahmood Riyaz, an official with the Environmental Research Centre. "But hopefully we will be able to do something." Following a 2002 report, some reinforcement work was done, and certain large-scale construction was halted in the northern areas of the island. The government did not follow through on that policy, however, which many observers now suggest has exacerbated the problem. Some are even pointing fingers at cafes in the area that play loud music, the suggestion being that the vibrations are accelerating the cracking of the reef. Although its population is only a bit over 80,000, Male's tiny size (1.7 x 1.0 km) makes it the world's most densely populated city. To take in more population, the construction industry has started building high-rises, even though the science of how building foundations and other stresses impact upon atoll islands is not yet firm. India/Bangladesh
When in doubt, buy it
With New Delhi's attempt to fence its 4000-km border with Bangladesh well underway, a parliamentary committee has urged the Centre to consider purchasing a vast swath of the frontier. Doing so may also allow the government to move towards circumventing a three-decade-old bilateral treaty with Bangladesh. At the moment, India is constructing the fence around 150 yards from the frontier, as per a 1975 treaty with Bangladesh that precludes building any defence structure within that distance. However, the government can legally buy real estate that falls within those 150 yards. While the fence may yet be moved closer to the border, the committee has suggested that if doing so is not possible, "the government may buy [this] land … so that people who have property within the 150 yards may not face problems any more." Given the heavy population density of much of the borderland, cultivation has traditionally gone all of the way up to the frontier. Indeed, in addition to farms and other cultivated areas, homes have also fallen within this 150-yard stretch. The question arises whether the Indian government should thus continue further with the ineffective programme of border fencing, and invest in thousands of acres of real estate. Pakistan/India Fibre-optic Wagah
Following final approval from Islamabad, the first direct fibre-optic link between India and Pakistan, running through Wagah, began functioning in early May. The cable, which will be used for both voice and data transfer, was actually laid back in April 2006 by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), but has been awaiting final approval.
While a coaxial cable was already in operation through Wagah, the new fibre-optic connection will significantly speed up and lessen the cost of data transfer between Pakistan and India, as well as Pakistan and the rest of Southasia. Previously, Pakistani data transfer has all been routed through West and Southeast Asia, and Europe. Sri Lanka/India Taxing Pooja
Everyone may love Kollywood, the Madras-based Tamil film industry, but not when their actors are taking away your jobs. Starting in June, Sri Lanka's National Film Corporation (NFC) will be taking steps to curb the increasing influx of Indian film stars into the country's film and television sectors. Colombo has slapped a new SLR 250,000 tax on producers employing Indian actors in starring roles. A SLR 150,000 tax will also have to be paid for employing Indian actors in supporting roles.
"We have many talented artistes and technicians here, but local producers are bringing Indians and depriving our people of work," NFC chairman Asoka Serasinghe complained, pointing in particular to the Indian Tamil star Pooja Umashankar, who appears in a popular television show. The announcement follows last year's imposition of a USD 750 tax per showing of films and television shows from India and the US, proceeds from which are being put back into bolstering Sri Lanka's own film industry. Pakistan/India  
Soundtrack archive
Researchers in the musicology department at Punjab University (PU) in Lahore have announced the formation of a programme to archive the soundtracks of historic films from India and Pakistan. Much of the original soundtracks originated in present-day Pakistan; Lahore was the predecessor to Bombay's filmdom. Students from the department will be tasked with visiting Pakistani production houses and select people associated with the Hindostani film and music industries, in an attempt to track down original classic soundtracks. According to Keith Timney, a musicology professor at PU, because many of the original recordings of these works – such as those by Mehdi Hassan and Noor Jahan (see photo) – were lost, remixes of these songs became popular instead. This, Timney asserts, has led to the crumbling of popular appreciation of the original tracks. While India has had a significantly better track record of saving its original recordings, those in modern-day Pakistan have been less fortunate. Islamist organisations denounced the new programme, accusing PU of promoting the appreciation of music that is "against Islamic belief". It is our own belief that the good profs will not cater to the clergy on this one. India/Pakistan
Hardly open
One and a half years after five new crossing points were created on the Line of Control in Kashmir, several posts remain largely unable to admit travelers due to bureaucratic inertia. Indeed, one of these crossings, Haji Pir Pass, has yet to see its first official border crosser. According to official statistics that became public in April, all five of the crossing points had cumulatively seen just 1700 travelers since October 2005, when Islamabad and New Delhi agreed to open new border checkpoints following the Kashmir earthquake. Two crossings have remained relatively busy, officials say – the Poonch-Rawalkot and the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad roads. The other three, however, have seen very little traffic, a phenomenon that locals say is traceable to cumbersome procedures for getting the necessary permits. According to People's Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti, there are currently "10,000 applications … pending for permit". Attempting the crossing is also seen as a way of opening oneself up for harassment by security officials. All in all, how does it help for India-Pakistan détente if the all-important agreement to allow LoC border crossings by Kashmiris is only existent on paper, and not at the border? Burma  
Further down the road
Late April saw the opening of the majority of the segments of the Stilwell Road, which runs from Assam to Yunnan in China, through Burma. An opening ceremony held in Myitkyina in Burma marked the end of three years of Chinese-funded construction on the Burma section of the road, which cost Beijing around RMB 1.2 billion (USD 159.6 million). Traveling time from Tengchong in Yunnan to Myitkyina has now been cut from eight hours to around three hours. The Stilwell Road was originally built as a military supply line during World War II. While the Chinese section of the road has long been operational, travel beyond Myitkyina towards the Indian border remains difficult, with only around two-thirds of that 360 km section currently open to vehicle traffic. In early May, however, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that multilateral talks were currently ongoing to "speed up" the road's full reopening. The state's industries minister, Pradyut Bordoloi, noted that development on the road within Assam would be completed within around six months. Region Looking for revenue
Potentially ending a year's worth of intransigence, Dhaka's interim government has agreed to hold talks over a gas pipeline that would run from Burma to India through Bangladeshi territory. Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury made the announcement after returning from a trip to Burma in late April. Although Dhaka had previously held the issue of transit rights for any such pipeline hostage to a host of bilateral grievances with India, Chowdhury put down the new stance reversal to economics: "We'll get revenue," he said simply. Previous estimates have surmised that Bangladesh could make up to USD 120 million per year for allowing the 950-km pipeline to cross its territory. With reports arsing in recent months of Rangoon's decision to sell most of its natural gas reserves to China, however, it remains to be seen whether the pipeline's USD 1 billion pricetag will still be considered worthwhile. Nepal/Bangladesh Long, lost years in Bangladesh
The story of four Nepalis released in early May from prison in Bangladesh is heart-rending. Three out of the four had been arrested and charged with not having valid travel documents; at the time, they were sentenced to a mere week in prison. Until their release, one had languished behind bars for 12 years, while the other two had been detained for three and six years. The fourth prisoner had been arrested in 1996 on charges of theft and possession of illegal weapons, and was sentenced to serve five years. Besides the inherent ability of Southasian prison systems to inhumanely forget the rights of unprotected detainees, some of the blame for these severe oversights are said to be applicable to the neglect of the Nepali embassy in Dhaka. Nepali diplomats there now say they are working with Bangladeshi authorities to see whether there are other Nepalis being unfairly detained elsewhere in Bangladesh. India
The rising waters
A climate-change expert has warned that stronger cyclones, coupled with rising seawater, will wreak havoc on India's eastern coasts in years to come. Although the country's coasts are set to bear the brunt of the ramifications of global climate change, India as a whole will suffer as well, said Pranabes Sanyal, with the National Coastal Zone Management Authority, based in Calcutta. Sanyal reported that since 2000, recorded cyclone speeds in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh have almost doubled, from 150 kph to 250 kph. Additionally, while sea levels around the world have been rising around two millimetres per year, the change in the Bay of Bengal has been around 3.14 mm per year – and up to 10 mm per year off Khulna in Bangladesh. New Delhi is planning to conduct a broad analysis of India's 7500-km coast next year, to discern how to ameliorate the country's coastal vulnerabilities. Either way, floods and storms in general look set to increase in the Subcontinent, as do the subsequent hunger and disease they spawn. Although it was not necessarily caused by climate change and global warming, during and following the 2004 tsunami, about 16,000 of the total 230,000 deaths took place in India. Nepal/Tibet Maoists quash Dalai Lama request
Nepal's Maoist leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka 'Prachanda'), has declared that his party will not allow the country's interim government to permit the Dalai Lama to reopen an office in Kathmandu. Although admitting that it was a "delicate issue", Dahal said that the newly seated government, with five cabinet posts occupied by his party, would not want to jeopardise "good relations with China". While Nepal would not forcibly repatriate refugees currently living in Nepal, the Maoist leader continued, the new government in Kathmandu would still not allow political Tibetan organisations to operate openly, "since we consider Tibet an integral part of China". The Dalai Lama's long-time office in Kathmandu, known as the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Centre, was shut down in January 2005, as part of the autocratic Gyanendra's attempt to appease Beijing. An application for the registration of a new Tibetan political organisation has been put on hold by Nepal's governments amidst greater worries, and it now appears certain that the request will be denied. Nepal/India Nepali goods to lose edge
Items manufactured in Nepal are set to lose their edge over other Southasian goods in India, after New Delhi recently announced that it would impose zero tariff on goods from all of the region's 'least-developed' countries – including Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal. Earlier, Nepali products had experienced a crucial tariff advantage in India over the region's other countries. Nepal's leading exports to its southern neighbour – vegetable ghee, jute goods, polyester yarn and readymade garments – amounted to over NPR 11 billion in 2005-06, over 25 percent of the country's total exports to India. After Manmohan Singh's announcement during the 14th SAARC Summit in early April, however, these and other goods will have to rely increasingly on their own commercial appeal. When taking into account Nepal's landlocked location and low productivity, many analysts now predict that Nepali goods will not fare well against the new competition, particularly given the suddenness of the announcement. India  
China v Arunachal
Optimistic reports of progress over the past year on the resolution of Sino-Indian border issues may have come a bit too early. After the defence ministry in New Delhi had, in mid-May, stated categorically that reports of Chinese 'incursion' into Arunachal Pradesh had been a "misrepresentation", members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) angrily called for a fact-finding mission to the state. Such a body was subsequently put together the following week. "China is in illegal possession of over 2000 square kilometres of Indian territory in the state," BJP MP Khiren Rijiju announced. "It is not a matter of only the 20-km-long encroachment in Sumdorong Chu in Tawang District, and China has been doing this steadily for years." Rijiju went on to say that resentment was building in the state against the Chinese, and that the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union was planning to launch an agitation programme. Bhutan  
Dawa Tshering, 1935-2007
Dawa Tshering, former foreign minister of Bhutan, passed away on 8 May 2007 in Thimphu, due to a liver condition. Dawa Tshering, born in Kalimpong in 1935, had been scouted out by a Royal Government of Bhutan in search of young modernisers. Tshering was inducted into the government's services soon after his graduation from Calcutta University and managed to quickly climb its ranks early in his career. He first became a minister in 1969 and when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was created in 1970, was assigned to head it. As a pillar of the Bhutani government, Tshering was instrumental in envisioning and implementing many of the policies for which former King Jigme Singye Wangchuk – who reigned from 1974 until his abdication this year in favour of his son – has been credited. Tshering was foreign minister from 1972 until the dismissal of the old Bhutani cabinet in 1998. He was the face of Bhutan to the world during the mass evictions exercise of the early 1990s, which created the Lhotshampa refugees currently languishing in Nepal camps. (See interview with Dawa Tshering in Himal July/August 1994)
Pakistan/India Kishanganga, again
Construction has quietly begun on a hydroelectric project in Kashmir that had been stalled for two decades. In addition to being beset by militancy, the 330-megawatt Kishanganga plant has been opposed by Islamabad due to fears that the Indian project would impact on its own hydro scheme, a 969-MW plant located downriver, directly across the Line of Control in the Neelam Valley. Islamabad has in the past alleged that India's plan to divert water from the Kishanganga (Neelam) River, the largest tributary of the Jhelum River, would be in violation of the bilateral Indus Water Treaty. In addition, there have been longstanding worries that the Kishanganga dam would flood the town of Gurez, in Jammu & Kashmir. Now, India's National Hydroelectric Power Corporation has decided to lower the dam's height by three metres. Doing so, company officials say, will not only eliminate the threat to Gurez, but will ultimately only impact on the village of Wadwun, the inhabitants of which will be resettled in Gurez. The INR 24 billion (now down from INR 32 billion) project's capacity will still be 330 MW. None of this looks set to settle Islamabad's worries, however. Bangladesh/Burma  
From Gundhum to Bolibazaar
Dhaka and Rangoon have finally agreed to build the first crossborder road between the two neighbours, linking Gundhum in southeastern Bangladesh with Bolibazaar in Burma. Although there is no official roadway between Bangladesh and Burma, there are two official crossing points along the 320-km frontier. Dhaka will now be paying for the construction of the new 23-km road, which both sides hope will eventually run between Dhaka and Rangoon. Discussions over the potential road have gone on for years, amidst off-and-on relations between the two sides, although Dhaka has reportedly already finished construction of the road on its side. Observers predict that the new roadway will have little economic impact, however, if the business community in Dhaka in particular is tardy in taking advantage of the road link. Pakistan/Afghanistan Stalled repatriation
In early May, the second meeting of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Jirga Commission finally took place – after having been put off for several weeks, and subsequently shortened to just a single day. Even as the participants were discussing ways to strengthen relations and security between the two neighbours, however, quiet sentiments of a very different nature were being made public: of the remaining two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the vast majority said that they were not planning on returning to their homeland. This despite Islamabad's specific orders in February that all Afghan refugees should be repatriated by 2009. To that end, at least four refugee camps are scheduled to close down this summer. While a large number of refugees have indeed returned home in recent years (including 200,000 more already in 2007), with the continued upswing in violence in Afghanistan in recent months a survey indicates that 84 percent of those still in Pakistan say they are afraid to return for security reasons. The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, released those findings in the midst of its largest-ever repatriation programme. There are official worries that even those refugees that do return to Afghanistan at this time may be confronted with a dire lack of land and related services. Nonetheless, Pakistani officials responded a week later by ordering the "immediate" repatriation of all Afghan refugees, accusing them of being involved in anti-state activities.