Than Shwe to Visit Sri Lanka

Snr-Gen Than Shwe will visit Sri Lanka at the invitation of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the near future, Burma’s state-run media said on Monday, without giving any specific dates or information about the trip.

Observers say Than Shwe's visit will be a reciprocal trip after Rajapaksa visited Burma in June, following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers guerrillas in northern Sri Lanka.

In this handout picture released by Sri Lankan President's Office on June 14, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (2L) is watched by his wife Shiranthi (L) as he shakes hands with Burma’s Snr-Gen Than Shwe (2R) and his wife, Kyaing Kyaing (R), at the International Airport in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Getty Images)

During his visit to Burma, Rajapaksa met with Than Shwe and discussed further cooperation between their countries with Burma’s Prime Minister, Gen Thein Sein.

He also visited Rangoon and inaugurated the Mitta Village, which was built with help from Sri Lanka in cyclone-hit Kungyangon Township.

The visits mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which started on June 7, 1949.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Win Min, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese expert said: “There are two reasons why Than Shwe is going to Sri Lanka. He envies Sri Lanka’s victory over the Tamil Tigers and his astrologer told him to go. Than Shwe follows advice from astrologers more than political advisers.”

Observers say both countries violate and abuse human rights despite being Buddhist countries.

The Burmese regime showed contempt for its own religion when troops killed and imprisoned monks who were demonstrating peacefully on the streets of Rangoon in September 2007.

Writing in The Irrawaddy in September, James Ross, the Legal and Policy Director at Human Rights Watch, said media and rights groups are also restricted in Sri Lanka, where they are barred from reporting on conditions in the detention camps, which now hold some 250,000 ethnic Tamils displaced by the war.

Burma and Sri Lanka are members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), along with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Thailand.

Recently, a special delegation from Sri Lanka met with Burmese authorities to facilitate the import of 50,000 metric tons of rice.

Since taking over power from Gen Saw Maung in 1992, Than Shwe has visited Singapore, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and China. On December 31, 2006 Than Shwe was treated for intestinal cancer at Singapore General Hospital.