ASEAN divided on what to do about Myanmar

ASEAN divided on what to do about Myanmar

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Southeast Asian nations admitted
yesterday being divided over Myanmar after the latest military
clampdown on the opposition, but ruled out any immediate change
to their "constructive engagement" with Yangon.

Philippines President Fidel Ramos has already asked for the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to review its
dealings with Myanmar at its summit in Jakarta at the end of next
month.

But Malaysia's Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi, new chairman
of the ASEAN standing committee, said: "There has to be a
consensus. We don't go by majority rule."

"Since President Ramos said he will raise it at the summit, we
will leave it to the (ASEAN) leaders to discuss the issue,"
Abdullah told a news conference after opening the committee's
first meeting in Kuala Lumpur to prepare for Malaysia's
chairmanship of ASEAN in 1997.

He added that it had to be a decision "all ASEAN governments
are comfortable with."

The Myanmarese military junta detained more than 500 members
of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League Democracy ahead of a
planned congress by the opposition party last weekend in Yangon.

Britain is urging the European Union to take action and the
United States also condemned the move. A lot of countries have
been waiting for the reaction of Myanmar's neighbors.

Abdullah admitted that ASEAN members were concerned with
latest developments in Myanmar, which was accepted as an ASEAN
observer in July this year.

"We view with some concern on what is happening in Myanmar.
But it is a little bit too early to speculate," Abdullah said,
commenting on calls on ASEAN to delay Myanmar's formal admission.

"We still have a lot more time. After all we only received
Myanmar's membership application in August," Abdullah added.

Malaysia has expressed its intention to admit Myanmar, along
with Laos and Cambodia, as a full member when it hosts the ASEAN
ministerial meeting next July.

ASEAN, grouping Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, prefers to use its "constructive
engagement" policy to prod Myanmar into improving its human
rights records.

It has rejected Western efforts to isolate the Yangon
government.

Besides the Philippines, Thailand has discreetly supported a
delay in accepting Myanmar's application.

The Philippine president said in Manila on Wednesday that
although the military crackdown did not affect ASEAN plans to
admit Rangoon "in due time," the regional grouping expected
further moves towards democracy.

"The consensus (to engage Myanmar's military junta in a
constructive dialog) is still there," Ramos said.

The Bangkok Post newspaper, which follows events in
neighboring Burma closely, on Sunday quoted informed sources as
saying ASEAN foreign ministers had agreed at an informal meeting
in New York to defer Myanmar's admission as full member.

Meanwhile, an international trade union group said in Bangkok
yesterday that Suu Kyi had urged the European Commission to adopt
sanctions against the Yangon military junta for using forced and
child labor,

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
said in a statement that Suu Kyi made the call in a filmed
interview that was smuggled out of Myanmar to Brussels and shown
at EC hearings on Monday.

The hearings could lead to Myanmar being denied access to the
European Generalized System of Preferences, the Brussels-based
ICFTU said.

Suu Kyi said in the interview that strong sanctions were
needed to loosen the grip of the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) on the nation.