Myanmar pledges to step up action against Indian rebel bases

An Indian home ministry spokesman said Myanmar agreed to intensify action and severely punish arms smugglers, after a five-day meeting in Yangon between officials from both sides.

The Indian delegation was led by V.K. Duggal, India's home secretary, while the Myanmar delegation was headed by Brigadier General Phone Swe, who is the deputy minister for home affairs in military-ruled Myanmar.

"Both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in tackling the activities of insurgents, arms smugglers, drug traffickers and other hostile elements along the India-Myanmar border," the home ministry spokesman said.

In June, Indian troops drove out nearly 200 Myanmarese militants belonging to the Chin National Army from bases in India's northeastern Mizoram state.

"The Myanmar side reiterated that it will not allow negative elements to use its territory for carrying out hostile activities against India, and both sides agreed to further strengthen" efforts against drug trafficking, the Indian embassy in Yangon said in a statement.

Both countries also agreed that when infrastructure projects along the border areas were finished, increased economic development and interaction would result, the statement added.

Indian authorities say at least 12 of about 30 separatist groups operating in India's northeast use Myanmar as a springboard to carry out guerrilla strikes on federal soldiers.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeast since India's independence in 1947.

On a visit to India last year, Myanmar's leader Than Shwe pledged his government would not let rebels operate from the country.

In December Myanmar launched a crackdown on Indian rebels.

India shares a 1,640-kilometer (1,000-mile) unfenced border with Myanmar.