Barring Myanmar not productive: Malaysia<\/p>\n
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysia rejected demands on Thursday to exclude Myanmar from a
\nsummit of Southeast Asian leaders next month if the military
\ngovernment does not free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
\nand initiate democratic reforms.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that the Association of
\nSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would \"get nowhere\" by freezing
\nMyanmar out of its annual summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said two months ago
\nthat Myanmar, also known as Burma, could eventually be expelled
\nfrom ASEAN as a last resort if the government fails to free Suu
\nKyi, though such a decision would require consensus.<\/p>\n
\"Isolating them will not be productive,\" Syed Hamid told
\nreporters. \"We should encourage them, in order for them not to be
\nsidelined or to be marginalized.\"<\/p>\n
Malaysia's opposition Democratic Action Party urged the
\ngovernment to pressure Myanmar to free Suu Kyi, who has been
\ndetained at an undisclosed location since her arrest after a May
\n30 clash between her supporters and a pro-government mob in
\nnorthern Myanmar.<\/p>\n
\"The Malaysian government must play a leading role in ASEAN to
\npressure the military junta ... failing which the Myanmar
\nmilitary junta must be excluded from the ASEAN summit and its
\nmembership in ASEAN be expelled immediately,\" the party said in a
\nstatement.<\/p>\n
Syed Hamid said on Thursday that ASEAN should support
\nMyanmar's newly appointed prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt, and a
\n\"road map\" that he has proposed for democratic reforms.<\/p>\n
Khin Nyunt, who has sat in the supreme military councils
\nrunning Myanmar since a pro-democracy uprising was crushed in
\nbloodshed in 1988, has made no offers to hold talks with Suu Kyi
\nor given a timetable for promised elections.<\/p>\n
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party overwhelmingly
\nwon elections more than a decade ago, but the junta refused to
\nyield power. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 15 years under
\nhouse arrest.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the United States took a new swipe at perennial
\nfoes North Korea, Myanmar and Cuba on Wednesday, saddling them
\nwith a fresh tier of sanctions -- to punish what it said was a
\nlack of effort in combating the modern day slave trade.<\/p>\n
The three states, which rarely escape the U.S. doghouse, fell
\nfoul of a U.S. survey on human trafficking, and the largely
\nsymbolic measures will bar them from any U.S. military,
\neducational or cultural aid.<\/p>\n
The \"continuing failure\" of Myanmar, Cuba and North Korea to
\ndeal responsibly with human trafficking gave Bush no option but
\nto sanction them, said White House press spokesman Scott
\nMcClellan in a statement.<\/p>\n
Myanmar, which exchanges frequent verbal fire with Washington,
\nhas also rejected the charges, and on Monday announced that it
\nhad uncovered 223 cases of human trafficking this year.<\/p>\n
Scores of youths from Myanmar, particularly girls, are
\nroutinely swept into the sex trade, lured to neighboring
\ncountries like Thailand.<\/p>",
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