View Full Version : New Ledo Roads:Stilwell 'Vinegar' Blow!
China to build Huge Port, Highways in Burma
By William Boot/Bangkok
July 4, 2007
A port capable of handling the largest cargo ships will be built o*n the Burmese island of Ramree specifically to service China's shipping needs, the official state news agency in Beijing has confirmed.
The port at Kyauk Phyu will be connected to a new 1,950-km highway to be built through Burma directly to Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan Province, according to China's Xinhua agency.
The major project, which would give developing but isolated Yunnan its first sea-trade window o*n the world, is to be undertaken by Asia World Company, a Burmese firm linked with Singaporean, Malaysian and Chinese business interests, and named in the past by US investigators in connection with drug smuggling.
Observers say such a port will require extensive highway infrastructure improvements, in order to transport the large cargo containers o*n trucks into China.
There has been speculation for some time that China wanted to develop a port o*n the Burmese coast to transship crude oil from Africa and the Middle East, but the Chinese agency report made no mention of this.
Burma watchers in Bangkok say the Xinhua report presents a disarmingly misleading picture, however.
“This is an attempt to portray China as a bystander who might benefit from some Burmese enterprise,” said a Southeast Asia political analyst at a Western embassy in Bangkok.
“But in truth it is another piece in the jigsaw picture emerging of China’s growing influence and control over Burma. In reality, the Chinese will be funding and building the port and the road links, and there is probably even more to it than that.”
The Kyauk Phyu port will have a water depth of 20 meters, said Xinhua, making it capable of handling the biggest container ships that currently dock at the world’s largest and busiest ports.
With that water depth, the port will be able to handle even larger vessels than in China’s busiest port, Shanghai.
Chinese shipping companies are now using some of the world’s biggest container ships, but even with dredging the Shanghai port does not have a depth of 20 meters.
“If this Burmese port is going to be that deep it could process really big ships carrying the largest containers,” said Bangkok-based shipping agent Sven Kaarstad. “But in that case, they would also have to build a fairly wide, straight highway up into China to be able to accommodate trucks with 20-foot or even maybe 40-foot containers. You cannot move container trucks o*n two-line roads.”
The Kyauk Phyu port will be linked with a new highway planned between Yunnan’s Kunming and the far western Burmese port of Sittwe via Mandalay with a spur o*nto Ramree Island, the Chinese news agency said.
Asia World is owned and managed by Steven Law and his father, Lo Hsing-han, who has a history of involvement in illegal drugs.
From a small business base in the early 1990s, Asia World has developed into o*ne of Burma’s biggest and most privileged business conglomerates, with interests ranging from transport to construction and retailing.
The company already operates Rangoon port and has built roads linking northern Burma with Yunnan. Asia World is also a major developer in the ruling junta’s new isolated capital of Naypyidaw.
Both Steven Law—also known as Tun Myint Naing—and his father have been accused by the US of involvement in drug trafficking. Law, who has a Singaporean wife with strong business and political links in the city state, was refused a visa to visit the US in the 1990s, although he studied there in his youth.
The Indian government is supposed to be financing the redevelopment of Sittwe port to provide India’s landlocked and isolated northeastern states with access to the sea via the River Kaladan. However, it’s not clear if this US $110 million project will go ahead because India and China both are vying to buy most or all of the verified 200 billion cubic meters of gas in just two blocks of the Shwe field 60 kilometers offshore from Sittwe.
If China is confirmed as the preferred buyer, a pipeline would also be built from Sittwe into Yunnan, and India may turn its investments elsewhere, say observers.
“India is desperate to monopolize Sittwe as part of its trade improvement plans, but development is really bedded in the gas which it wants to pipe into its northeast states to power their development,” says energy commodities analyst Sar Watana in Bangkok. “It’s hard to imagine New Delhi funding a port development that benefits China.”
The cost of building the Kyauk Phyu port and a linking highway is not yet known. Asia World is reported to have invested $200 million, possibly with junta aid, developing Rangoon port, which currently handles more than 80 percent of Burma’s import-export trade.
These days the regime cries poverty whenever joint ventures are considered and someone else picks up the bill—India for instance had agreed to pay $100 million of the $110 million Sittwe port bill.
In the case of Kyauk Phyu, China is expected to be a major contributor. Asia World, which has two known subsidiaries registered in Singapore, would likely be the major business beneficiary from the development project.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=7773
Here perhaps we perceive the real driver for better transport links between Myanmar and China. It is almost a given that the 'profits' of such projects will largely be monopolized by the already rich as a hedge against their (eventually) inevitable retirement to their already-acquired luxury boltholes in Singapore:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=7904
Burma's Robber Barons (Commentary)
By Ma Sandar
July 17, 2007
Work continues on upgrading and widening the Ledo Road that will link India and China through Burma. A forthcoming Trans-Asia rail line will likely follow the course of famed World War II highway, creating two major arteries for investment and the overland flow of trade to Burma and throughout the region.
Anticipating these developments, crony capitalists such as Yuzana Htay Hlaing, who enjoys close connections with Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council, have begun acquiring tens of thousands of acres along this historic route.
In the process, local inhabitants have been dispossessed and displaced principally by two sons of key SPDC members—Lt-Gen Ye Myint and Lt-Gen Maung Bo. These men have scrambled to augment their wealth by the size and number of business assets that accrue from their blood ties.
Vast stretches of fallow land remain throughout Burma, and the military government has invited investors to apply for leases. However, the situation in the Hukawng Valley, through which the Ledo Road runs, amounts to nothing less than a land grab of no mean proportions and with no regard for properties owned and worked for generations by local ethnic people.
The widening of the Ledo Road alone entailed the destruction of numerous homes, and the majority of the people—in the Hukawng Valley and throughout Burma—have no say in the matter.
This land grab bears a striking resemblance to the opening of the American West, when well-moneyed and politically powerful railroad barons acquired tracts of land along proposed rail routes—assets that later became the foundations of immense personal fortunes.
Cronyism in Burma has prospered under the fiat of military authoritarianism and via the venality and machinations of unscrupulous entrepreneurs who dominate the country’s transitional economy.
These developments could have been addressed legally, officially and within the province of the state if a parliament, any parliament, had been convened following the elections of 1988 (under the assumption that this happens side by side with the drafting of a new constitution). The very fact that grievances could be aired would act as a brake on the baser instincts within our economy and society. This applies as well to larger issues like the ending of the armed conflict in ethnic regions.
That a parliament and an elected government have not come into being nineteen years after 1988 is shameful, and both the ruling junta and the leading opposition have to share the responsibility—albeit the former must bear the lion's share.
The incumbent military regime has set a world's record in postponing the democratic transition for more than 18 years and having a field day with the country's resources in the interim, as if it were their divine right to mismanage the country's resources.
Burma’s leading democrats have continued to insist, mind-numbingly, that only their version of parliament should come into being, and not an initial parliament that could have acted as a crucial first step towards preventing the unscrupulous generals from doing more pernicious things in the name of a transitional market-based economy.
The people are too poor to demand liberal Western democracy, and they would greatly benefit from genuine, gradual democratic transition and sensible economic reforms.
Neither the junta nor the opposition has proven themselves capable of feeding the people or triggering a democratic evolution, though they have tried to legitimize themselves in the name of the people.
Meanwhile, the internal dislocation and displacement of poor farming communities continue while a new class of economic vultures—that is, Burmese robber barons patronized by friends in high places—have rake in record profits.
[Ma Sandar is living in Rangoon.]
Deep-sea port planned at Kyaukphyu
MYANMAR is planning to build a deep-sea port at Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State to facilitate maritime trade with neighbouring countries, traders said last week.
The deep-sea port, which will be on Maday Island, will be built by private-sector company Asia World, which has already finished surveying the project site.
According to experts, the port will serve as a transit trade centre for goods destined for the port cities of Yangon, Kolkata in India and Chittagong in Bangladesh.
Kyaukphyu is also on a proposed land route connecting southwestern China’s Kunming in Yunnan province with Myanmar’s Sittwe through Mandalay.
Once the 1943-kilometre Kunming-Kyuakphyu road is finished, Myanmar will benefit from transit trade in terms of revenue from goods exported to China and increased job opportunities, experts said.
The plan for the road was discussed at workshops held in Mandalay and Kunming in 2002, which were also attended by experts of Germany and India.
Another deep-sea port is under development at Dawei in Tanintharyi Division by Myanmar and Thailand under an economic cooperation strategy involving those two countries plus Cambodia and Laos.
The seaport project and a Dawei-Kachanaburi road link are being carried out as one package together with a 1360-kilometer trilateral highway project among India, Myanmar and Thailand. – Xinhua
http://www.mmtimes.com/no375/n007.htm
As with just about every country's dealings with the Junta, it takes more than a few massacres to stop such a project:
India, Burma ready to finalise Kaladan project
Syed Ali Mujtaba (Mizzima News)
October 10, 2007 - India and Burma are set to sign the final agreement of the $ 100 million Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Project in two or three weeks time.
The two countries are giving final touches to the project, which will enable India's northeastern states to conduct trade directly with Southeast Asian countries through the Sittwe port. It would also provide an alternative route for transport of goods to the northeast states of India, bypassing Bangladesh.
The papers are lying with the Burmese government and indication is that the other side is ready to sign them shortly, highly placed sources said.
''We hope to finalise the agreement of the project within the next few weeks,'' official sources in New Delhi said on Tuesday.
Out of the three components of the project, road and water are easy, while the port is difficult, sources said.
"The bone of contention was the control of the port. Since India is investing heavily in this project, it wants to retain control of the port. This is not being accepted by Burma. So, India softened its stand and agreed to hand over the port soon after its completion. The other issue is Burma is committed to about $ 10 million in this project but is not willing to invest money. India has agreed to provide Yangon a soft loan of about $10 million, paving the way for final agreement," sources said.
The development of the Sittwe port is part of the Kaladan multi-modal transport project that envisages facilitating movement of cargo vessels by road and inland water from Mizoram through Kaladan River, all the way to the town of Sittwe in the Rakhine State of Burma.
"The Sittwe port project is likely to take three years to complete. The project will not only benefit north eastern states, but will also contribute to the development of Sittwe town and the improvement of the Kaladan river system. It would also be an exit point to mainland India. The Port is about 12 hours from Haldia and 36 hours from Vishakapatnam, sources said.
http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/Oct/40-Oct-2007.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK06Df04.html
Nov 6, 2007
India bends over for Myanmar's generals
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India has finalized a multi-million dollar project with Myanmar aimed at boosting the economy of its underdeveloped and strife-torn northeast region. Loose ends of the project have been tied up and a deal sealed with the generals, even as sections of the international community call for sanctions against Myanmar's military rulers.
The Kaladan multi-modal transport project envisages connecting India's northeastern region with the Bay of Bengal. It involves constructing roads linking the Indian state of Mizoram with Kaletwa in Myanmar, development of the Kaladan River as a waterway and improving the infrastructure of the port at Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's Arakan province. Sittwe is situated at the point where the Kaladan River empties into the Bay of Bengal. The project will give goods from India's landlocked northeast access to the sea.
The project, which India first proposed in 2003, was agreed to in principle by both sides in February. Its finalizing would not have grabbed as much media attention as it did had it not coincided with the political crisis in Myanmar.
The India-Myanmar handshake over the Kaladan project comes at a time when Myanmar's military rulers are being internationally criticized for their refusal to restore democracy in the country and for their crackdown on ongoing pro-democracy protests. It comes at a time when India's (and China's) economic and military support to Myanmar's generals is being blamed for the junta's survival in the face of international sanctions.
It was at the height of the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar and international criticism of India's support of the generals that India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora visited Myanmar, pledging an investment of US$150 million in gas exploration. Three agreements between India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and its counterpart the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise were signed during the visit, providing for exploration for gas in three deep-water exploration blocks, AD-2, AD-3 and AD-9, off the Arakan coast.
Within weeks of that controversial visit, India has sealed another deal with the generals. Agreement on the Kaladan project was not easy to reach. India has been more keen than Myanmar to clinch the deal. Delhi appears to have bent over backwards to get the generals on board.
Given that India is investing heavily in the project, it wanted to retain control over Sittwe port. This was not acceptable to the generals. India subsequently agreed to hand over the port after its upgrade. Besides, the generals after initially committing to put in $10 million backed out. India has now agreed to extend Myanmar a soft loan of $10 million. Thus the project deal was done on the generals' terms.
India's interest in the Kaladan project stems from latter's potential to transform the economy of its northeastern states. Once completed - it is expected to take about four years - the Kaladan project will facilitate the transport of goods by road and river from the landlocked northeastern states - the Kaladan River runs from Mizoram in India through Myanmar's China and Arakan states to empty into the Bay of Bengal - to Sittwe port and from there on to markets in Southeast Asia and beyond.
The project is not the only one that India is pursuing with Myanmar with an eye on improving the connectivity of its northeast with Southeast Asian markets. India has constructed a road linking Moreh in the the northeastern state of Manipur with Kalewa in Myanmar. Called the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road and built at a cost of $30 million, the road will eventually run up to Mandalay.
Then there is the old Stilwell Road, which runs from Assam in India through Myanmar to Yunnan in China. Vast stretches of this World War II road are in abysmal condition or simply don't exist. Efforts are on to repair and renovate the road. India (and China) are hoping that once the entire road is repaired and ready for use, Myanmar will be willing to reopen it. Stilwell Road will open Chinese markets to goods from the northeast.
There is a plan too to link by rail the northeastern state of Manipur with Myanmar. This project will involve construction of the Jiribam-Imphal-Moreh railway line in Manipur and the Tamu-Kalay-Segyi line in Myanmar, as well as repairing Myanmar's existing Segyi-Chaungu Myohaung line.
With the construction of the rail line between India and Myanmar, India will be linked by rail to Southeast Asia. And "since Myanmar is getting a rail link with China, to be completed in around three years, a link with Myanmar could help India reach China and then right up to Russia", Jay Prakash Batra, chairman of both the Indian Railway Board and the International Union of Railways (the Paris-based organization that works for cooperation between different railway systems), said late last year.
Indian officials point out that economic development of the northeast requires greater interaction with neighboring countries such as Myanmar. India's northeastern region shares a 4,500 kilometer international border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China but connects with the rest of India by a 22-kilometer strip of land called the Siliguri Corridor. Ninety-eight percent of the northeast's borders are with other countries, and only 2% with India. Improving ties with these neighbors is essential. Unlike Bangladesh, Myanmar's rulers have been more willing to trade with India.
Besides, links with Myanmar are essential for India, if Delhi is serious about taking its "Look East" policy forward. Myanmar is, after all, India's land bridge with Southeast Asia.
There are other reasons behind India's courting of the generals. It is concerned with China's immense influence and presence in Myanmar, which has implications for India's security. Another is to get the generals to shut down camps run by anti-India insurgent groups on Myanmar's soil. India realized that its counter-insurgency operations in the northeastern states would not be effective unless it had the support of Myanmar's military rulers.
There is also the question of India's energy security. Myanmar has rich gas reserves, which India is eager to access. An Indian government official told Asia Times Online that the visit of the petroleum minister to Myanmar at the height of the protests was poorly timed but cancelation of the visit would have jeopardized India's already tenuous relations with the generals.
Indian officials, who until recently believed that the decision of Asia's largest democracy to tone down its expression of support to the pro-democracy movement and deal with Myanmar's military rulers had paid off, have in recent months become more cautious in their assessment of the influence they wield over the generals.
The Sino-Indian contest for access to Myanmar's gas reserves has gone in favor of China. A couple of months ago, Myanmar announced that it was withdrawing India's status of "preferential buyer" on the A1 and A3 blocks of its Shwe gas fields off its Arakan coast and said it intended selling gas to China.
"India is unable to match what China is willing to offer the generals - supply of whatever military equipment they demand and use of the veto in their defense in the Security Council. Over a decade after it began engaging the junta, India is still not as comfortable with the generals as China is," the official pointed out.
The limited gains wooing the generals notwithstanding, India is not about to reverse its policy of doing business with the junta. "It is because India refused to engage the Myanmar generals for decades that the space in that country was left open for China to fill. A pullback now would be a repeat of that blunder," the official said.
Indian officials dismiss Western criticism of India's Myanmar policy. India shares borders with Myanmar; the US and others do not. Their economic investment in Myanmar is limited; hence the pontification and their support for sanctions against Myanmar, the official said.
Besides, if India were to do business only with democracies, it would be hard-pressed to find suitable partners in its neighborhood.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
India moves to reopen Stilwell Road by 2010
KOLKATA – India has seized the initiative to reopen for cross-border trade a historic road linking its northeastern region to Myanmar and China.
This week federal junior Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh handed a sack of salt to a Myanmar army officer at Pansaung where the Stilwell Road enters Myanmar territory, heralding what he described as a new chapter in trade and commerce with neighbouring countries.
The 1700km Stilwell Road was built during World War II by Allied and Chinese troops under the command of US General Joseph Stilwell to link up with the 1257km Myanmar Road into China.
The Stilwell Road ran from Ledo in Assam to Myitkyina in Myanmar, from where the Myanmar Road ran to Kunming in China’s Yunnan province.
The first supplies to the beleaguered Chinese Army fighting the Japanese onslaught travelled the whole route in February 1945.
Mr Ramesh is pulling out all stops to revive the road to speed economic and social integration between India’s northeast and ASEAN countries.
The commerce ministry wants to reopen the route by 2010, Mr Ramesh said while inaugurating the international trade centre at Nampong, the last Indian town on the Stilwell Road. “I have spoken to (foreign minister) Pranab Mukherjee on reopening the trade route through Pansaung,” he said.
The local people are eager to see the Stilwell Road reopened for trade as soon as possible. All the northeastern chief ministers, too, have requested (prime minister) Mr Manmohan Singh to reopen the route. Arunachal Pradesh hopes it will boost timber export and revive the state’s once-thriving wood industry.
The people of the northeast originated in southwest China, Laos, Thailand Myanmar and Vietnam. Guwahati, the capital of Assam and the hub of the northeast, is 1500km from Kalcutta, 2500km from New Delhi and more from Bombay and Madras. Mandalay and Yangon are closer than Calcutta, and even Kunming and Bangkok are not far away.
“The Gateway of India in Bombay faces west. It is time to build another gateway at Ledo, looking east, symbolising a reunion with the past yet heralding the future and a great new beginning,” Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi said.
“There is real potential here. We are keen to use Myanmar for channelling exports to the ASEAN region using the [projected] trans-ASEAN rail network linking Myanmar to Thailand and Laos, and through these countries Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam,” he said.
Economists say India’s northeast can become a part of the emerging powerhouse the Chinese have begun to call the Great Golden Triangle, stretching from Yunnan to Singapore. – Khaleej Times
http://www.mmtimes.com/no396/n005.htm
Cross-border road to be completed in March
A Myanmar-China cross-border road connecting Myitkyina in Kachin state and China’s Teng Chong, in southwestern Yunnan Province, is expected to be completed in March this year, according to a Yangon Times report on January 17.
The 224-kilometre Myanmar-China road runs from Myitkyina to Kanpikete and then Teng Chong.
With the assistance of Chinese engineers, the 96-kilometre Myitkyina-Kanpikete section on the Myanmar side was completed and opened in April 2007.
According to the newspaper, most of the work of the remaining section of Kanpikete-Teng Chong, which is a tunnel road starting from Myanmar’s Kanpikete, has been completed with Chinese assistance.
The tunnel measures 500 metres in length, 8m in width and 9m in height and will run two lanes of traffic, the report said.
The construction of the tunnel road began in 2006 and cost about US$6.22 million.
http://www.mmtimes.com/no402/b006.htm
Presumably dresses = dress?:
Junta gears up to open new border bridge
News - S.H.A.N.
Written by Lieng Lern
Monday, 28 January 2008
The Burmese military junta is ready to inaugurate a new bridge on Nam Mao River, better known as Shweli, on the Sino- Burma border in northern Shan State, according to a local source.
On January 21 2008 at 3 pm Nam Kham Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) official U Thin Hlaing held a meeting in the TPDC office to collect funds from the villages. The money will be used to buy dresses for people who will attend the new bridge opening ceremony.
"If the quarter has funds they will use the fund to give to the authorities. But if it doesn't have funds, the junta will collect the money from the people at the rate of Kyat 2,000 ($1.6) per household," one villager said.
The opening of the new bridge will be celebrated for two days, from February 9 to 10, 2008. At least 15,000 people have to attend. The junta will choose over 230 participants who are good looking to stand on the new bridge in groups such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), teachers group, the Shan Culture, Women's Association Committee, Mother and Children Organization, Lisu and Fire Brigade, the source said.
The funds collected from the villages will be used to buy dresses for the 230 people who will participate in the inauguration of the new bridge. One suit is priced at Kyat 6,500 ($5.2). The sewing cost will have to be paid by the one who wears it.
"The official who presides over the opening of this new bridge will be coming from the new capital. His military rank will be Lieutenant General. Maybe PM Thein Sein will come but no one is sure yet," he added.
Construction of the Shweli Bridge started in March 24 2003 by the Special Public Construction No. 16. The length is 600 feet, the height is 35 feet, and the width is 24 feet.
"Had it been the Asia World Company of Lo Hsing Han it would have been finished a long time ago but it was built by the Special Public Construction No.16", one villager said. "Nam Kham has 16 quarters and one quarter has at least over 100 houses and the biggest quarter has over 400 houses".
http://www.bnionline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3412&Itemid=1
Nam Khan residents forced to contribute for VIP tour
Myo Gyi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 28, 2008
The Burmese military junta functionaries stop at nothing to fleece people. Authorities are coercing residents in Nam Khan to contribute money at the rate of Kyat 2,000 per household to spend in the inaugural ceremony of Nam Khan suspension bridge across the Shweli River. The ceremony will be attended by SPDC brass from Naypyidaw.
The new bridge will be opened on February 12 by SPDC brass. The local authorities collected money from the residents forcibly to spend in welcoming and entertaining the VIPs and for the inaugural ceremony.
"The Township Peace and Development Council Chairman said Kyatt. 2,000 must be collected per household. They said the Prime Minister will come and open the bridge. The local authorities and local organizations will welcome the VIPs and they need money for dresses to be used for the function," a resident told Mizzima.
Nam Khan PDC Chairman said at the meeting with Ward and Village level PDC Chairmen that the required fund is at the rate of Ks. 2,000 per household. It must be collected from their respective administrative zones to be used for the bridge inaugural ceremony, sources close to local authorities said.
The local authorities have arranged to summon 50 USDA members, 30 women from pro-junta Federation of Women and Maternity and Child welfare, 30 members from fire brigade and Shan and Lisaw ethnic races from each ward and village to the Shweli suspension bridge opening ceremony, this local resident added.
"Yes, they are collecting money for USDA uniforms. But they haven't yet said anything to the people in the township to welcome the VIPs. I think they will summon and inform the people from wards and village at short notice just before the function," another resident said.
The news has been circulated among the local people saying that SPDC Chairman Thein Sein will come to the opening ceremony and about 10,000 people will be summoned to attend the function.
The new Shweli suspension bridge is 600 feet long, 24 feet wide and 35 feet high. It is situated on Nam Khan – Bahmo highway, built near Mang Wing village in 2003, three miles from Nam Khan.
Lastest Articles:
http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2008/Jan/71-Jan-2008.html
http://www.mmtimes.com/no396/n005.htm
It is well-worth seeing the complete New Mandala blog article (with more photos) here:
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2008/02/23/the-stilwell-road/
The Stilwell Road
February 23rd, 2008 by Nicholas Farrelly
Over the last couple of years I have been fortunate to travel widely throughout the borderlands where Burma, China and India come together. In this time I have spent many hours bumping along the trans-regional connection, now often called the Stilwell Road, that was constructed by allied forces during World War II. As many readers know, the road from Ledo in Assam went all the way to Kunming. It was designed to re-supply troops fighting the Japanese in China. But in all my time on the road I had not, until last week, seen a sign marking this epic linkage.
What follows are a few pictures taken from the “Stilwell Park” just near Ledo. I hope New Mandala readers find them interesting or useful.
Stilwell Road sign
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/stilwell-road-sign.jpg
[Photo: New Mandala]
- The route to Kunming is marked out on this map under the catchy slogan: “Rejuvenate our lifeline; Revitalize our relationship; Reach out beyond the borders”. The political figure who erected the sign has gone on to become Assam’s Minister for Industries & Commerce, Power (Electricity) & Public Enterprises.
...........
Road needing improvement
- A part of the road that is currently being refurbished. My understanding is that prominent local figures hope to have the Indian portion of the road to the Burma border completely rebuilt by some time in 2010.
I made this scan from a 1:2,000,000 scale map of Myanmar to compare with the picture above and previous posts in this thread. To get some rough idea of scale on this slightly reduced image, Myitkyina to Bhamo is approx. 150 Kms:
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/2307/75960515zw7.jpg
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=18667&postcount=6
A highway crosses the border from India at the Pangsau Pass at the top of the map. It is actually marked on the map as Ledo Road, but Ledo is not actually marked itself. It passes south through the Hukawng valley - where there are current reports of a landgrab by Junta supporters [ http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15898&postcount=2 ] - to Myitkyina. Here a secondary road is seen heading East to the Chinese border. This is currently being developed as a border crossing with a new road that includes a 500 meter tunnel: http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=19513&postcount=7
The original road then heads further South to Bhamo. Then roughly East to the border crossing between Muse in Myanmar and Ruili in China. See post on Namkham, which is near this crossing:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=19570&postcount=8
See also map of Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, with the Paungsau/Pangsu pass clearly marked on the Myanmar Border. But where is Ledo itself? It's supposed to be in Assam, which is also detailed on the map linked below:
http://arunachalgovernor.nic.in/images/apmap.jpg
(Some browsers support a magnifier cursor that can be clicked to improve viewing of this map.)
I've found the answer to my own question here. Slightly East of Margherita, but not as far as the Likhapani railwayhead on this war-derived map and zoomed inset:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Allied_lines_of_communication_in_Southeast_Asia%2C _1942-43.jpg
(Use magnifier cursor to zoom image.)
However, on this modern map (courtesy of Nicholas Farelly) it appears the railhead is now Digboi/Dingboi:
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/assam/districts/tinsukia.jpg
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/assam/districts/tinsukia.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledo_Road
India Battling China for Influence
By WILLIAM BOOT / BANGKOK
The India government is determined not to lose out completely to China in the battle for the hearts and minds—and natural resources—of the Burmese junta.
The Chinese may get the big field of gas the Indians wanted and use Burma as a shortcut to ship Middle East oil to southwest China, but India continues to woo the Naypyidaw generals—and in a Jekyll and Hyde fashion.
New Delhi is claiming credit for organizing UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s next visit to Burma, and will welcome Burmese military chiefs at its international arms fair beginning on Saturday.
Some observers might think that’s a contradiction, but not in the eyes of the leaders of the biggest democracy in the world.
In April, the junta's No. 2, Gen Maung Aye, will be a VIP at the formal signing of a much-coveted US $120 million business deal between the two countries.
New Delhi has wriggled and twisted to ensure it secures the special contract to redevelop Burma’s dilapidated west coast port of Sittwe, along with new transport links up to the border of the Indian northeast state of Mizoram.
India was originally going to get operational control of Sittwe port in return for renovating the former British rice export centre, but the junta changed its mind—after Chinese objections, say insiders.
Rather than let the deal go, New Delhi will now sign what’s being termed a BTU agreement—build, transfer and use.
Under the deal, the Indians will still be able to use Sittwe as an export-import junction for its northeast. But with the Chinese set to run a gas pipeline beside the port from the nearby offshore Shwe field, Beijing would not want a third country in charge of port operations.
“This deal has not been easy, as with most negotiations with the prevaricating generals, but the Indian government has been dogged to the point of fawning to clinch it,” said independent energy industries consultant Collin Reynolds in Bangkok.
“This is because it is critical to plans for developing India’s isolated and troublesome northeast states.”
Those states—Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh –are populated with 35 million mostly non-Indian indigenous tribes many of whom have long resented New Delhi control and harbor extremists who seek independence. Some of the armed separatists cross the border into Burma to thwart Indian army pursuit.
Ironically, these northeast territories were annexed by the British during the expansionary heyday of the 19th century British empire as a buffer against marauding Burmese before the British also invaded Burma.
The deal Maung Aye is expected to sign in New Delhi includes widening and deepening the Kaladan River that flows from Mizoram to Sittwe to accommodate cargo vessels. A parallel road is also planned.
New Delhi’s decision to ignore US and European Union calls to support a trade boycott and the political isolation of the Burmese government to force reform is paying off, just like it is for China.
The Indian energy company Essar is to begin exploratory drilling for gas and oil at two Burmese sites. One is onshore near Sittwe in Arakan State. The other, ironically, is in the Shwe field in the Bay of Bengal where two other Indian companies— onGC and GAIL—have been frustrated by the Chinese.
Having discovered and developed 5.6 trillion feet of recoverable gas (184 billion cubic meters) in two other Shwe sections along with the South Koreans, China successful negotiated with the generals to buy the much-coveted fuel.
“It has hurt the India government to produce gas for the Chinese, but the Indians cannot afford not to play along even though Essar might experience the same fate,” said Reynolds.
Arakan State is poised to experience increased development in the next few years as India and China scramble for energy and to use the territory as a conduit to their landlocked regions.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=10516
Resident's homes on Ledo Road to move back 20 feet
News - Kachin News Group
Thursday, 07 August 2008
Residents owning houses on Stilwell Road also called Ledo Road between Waingmaw and Kambaiti in Kachin State in Northern Burma have been ordered to move back about 20 feet from the current location by local Burmese junta authorities as of May, local sources said.
Every house owner along the Stilwell Road from Waingmaw to Kambaiti on the China-Burma border, east of Kachin State were informed in a letter by the junta's Township and Village Peace and Development Council (Ma-Ya-Ka and Ya-Ya-Ka) in May.
In Waingmaw township, east of Irrawaddy River (Mali Hka in Kachin), opposite Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachn State, over twenty houses and shops on the roadside have begun to move back since early this month, said residents of Waingmaw.
Locals added that the junta is not paying any compensation to house owners who will lose their land and homes because of the widening of Ledo Road .
According to roadside house owners, they have been given a deadline to move back before the end of this year by local military authorities.
Locals said the junta plans to rebuild the current Ledo Road in Waingmaw Township into a two-lane road and also plans to open the Myitkyina-Waingmaw-Kambaiti Road as the official China-Burma border trade road soon instead of the current Myitkyina-Waingmaw-Laiza.
The Myitkyina-Waingmaw-Laiza Road is shorter than Myitkyina-Waingmaw-Kambaiti Road from the border. However the junta does not want to open Laiza as an official border trade road because Laiza is controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), local merchants said.
One part of Ledo Road between Myitkyina and Kambaiti on the Burma side was reconstructed by the Chinese government and the opening ceremony was officially held in Kambaiti on April 26, 2007.
Another part of Ledo Road between Danai (Tanai) and Myitkyina is under construction by the Rangoon-based Yuzana Company chaired by U Htay Myint. The company also bought over 200,000 acres of land in Hukawng valley in 2006 from the ruling junta.
The Ledo Road connects Ledo in Assam State in India and Kunming in China's Yunnan province and the road was constructed by the US Army during World War II from 1942-1945.
http://bnionline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4670&Itemid=1
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