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India refuses permission for trade-



Subject: India refuses permission for trade-union meeting 

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India refuses permission for trade-union meeting


THE Indian government has refused permission for a planned international
trade-union conference in Calcutta which was to have discussed labour and
democracy issues in Burma, an official from the Singapore-based International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) Asia and Pacific Regional
Organisations told The Nation yesterday. 


The Indian government has yet to inform the organisers formally, but it was
understood from the ICFTU's Indian affiliates that the authorities would not
permit the conference to be held, said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. 


''According to our Indian affiliates, entry visas, especially for the Burmese
participants, were being denied and rejected by the Indian government,'' he
said. 


The decision by the Indian government is unprecedented, considering the fact
that the country is the largest democracy in the world, he added. 


The Indian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment on the matter. 


The labour meeting, which was to bring together 130 participants from 20
countries, was originally planned for Bangkok last month, but the Thai
government abruptly refused permission for it to be held on the grounds that
the meeting would jeopardise its ties with Burma. 


Because of the original cancellation, a decision taken in spite of endorsement
from Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, the international trade-union movement
has taken serious note of Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi's
candidacy for the position of World Trade Organisation chief, the ICFTU said. 


The Thai Labour Ministry denied permission for the May meeting because the
Labour Congress of Thailand, an affiliate of the ICFTU, was not a human-rights
organisation and did not have a mandate to question or address the
human-rights
situation in a neighbouring country. 


The organisers in turn criticised the Thai government for dictating the
mandate
of a non-governmental organisation. 


Thailand took a similar step in March last year when the authorities banned
Indonesia's Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta from attending a
conference on East Timor in Bangkok. 


The Nation