Albright bangs the drum of democracy
Albright bangs the drum of democracy
By Nick Cumming-Bruce
BANGKOK: The United States secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, tried in vain Sunday to persuade Asian nations to use aid as a lever to end the government crisis in Cambodia and faced an uphill task urging them to curb repression in Myanmar.
On her way to a security forum convened by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Albright had said one of her priorities would be restoring the Cambodian coalition government torn apart by the coup by the second prime minister, Hun Sen, earlier this month. Washington hoped Asian countries would withhold at least some aid to the Phnom Penh government to win concessions from Hun Sen.
The meeting -- attended by 21 foreign ministers from Asia, the European Union, Australasia and North America -- agreed that ASEAN should take the lead in steering Cambodia back into line with the 1991 peace agreements that underpin its constitutional commitment to multiparty politics and an elected parliament.
But this consensus embraces a range of different approaches which, diplomats believe, may yet leave Hun Sen in charge. The U.S. has suspended aid but Japan, Cambodia's biggest donor, is maintaining its assistance. China wants a peaceful reconciliation but says it will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs.
"We didn't have the same position on aid," the state department spokesman, Nicholas Burns, said after Albright met Japan's foreign minister, Yukihiko Ikeda.
Albright, setting out the key principles for any Cambodian settlement, said the Phnom Penh government had to allow political parties to operate freely. Party leaders, many of whom fled in fear of their lives after the coup, must be able to return safely. ASEAN and the U.S. should monitor elections due next year. She added that Khmer Rouge guerrillas should be barred from the political process and that the international community should set up a tribunal to bring their leaders to justice.
It remains to be seen, however, whether Asian leaders are ready to tough it out with Hun Sen, who was due to reopen parliament in Phnom Penh yesterday as he tried to show that normality was returning and to deflect foreign pressure.
Although ASEAN said last week that it still recognized ousted Prince Norodom Ranariddh as Cambodia's first prime minister, it is doubtful that member governments will go to great lengths to stand up for him.
On Myanmar, which won ASEAN membership last week despite U.S. and European opposition, Albright must wait and see whether her calls for tougher action have results. She has called the Myanmar regime "among the most repressive and intrusive on earth".
"Now that the choice has been made," Albright said of Myanmar's ASEAN membership, "we must insist that we work together to promote conditions within Myanmar that will lead towards true democracy and permit its genuine integration into this region."
But ASEAN leaders, notably Malaysia's prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, sharply rebuked Western efforts to press other ASEAN member states into joining U.S. and European sanctions against Myanmar in place of the association's current policy of "constructive engagement".
Albright labelled ASEAN's newest recruit as a country "where the government protects and profits from the drug trade". Drug money was being laundered with impunity.
She said ASEAN leaders visiting Myanmar should give the democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the support she deserved as "an elected leader" -- a reference to her 1990 election victory ignored by the junta.
-- The Guardian