Calcutta Diary

Charged with hijacking a Thai Airways plane at Bangkok airport in November 1990 to highlight the Burmese nation's struggle against the ruling junta and shuttling ever since between New Delhi, Calcutta and the second additional sessions court at Barasat, Soe Myint has scrounged a living through stray journalistic writings. A collection of these writings, Burma File: A Question of Democracy, was recently released by the venerable Lakshmi Sehgal. That is all she, and the rest of us, can do for Soe Myint for the present. Ours is a democratic country, civil liberties are respected here, but then we are also an integral part of George W Bush's war on terrorism.