ASEAN FMs can't agree on Myanmar during retreat in Philippines

ASEAN FMs can't agree on Myanmar during retreat in Philippines

Jason Gutierrez, Agence France-Presse/Mactan, Philippines

Southeast Asian foreign ministers failed to reach a consensus Monday on the issue of Myanmar's ASEAN chairmanship next year but told the military-ruled state to push forward with democratic reforms.

At a retreat in the central Philippine island of Cebu, ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided to defer the decision until an ASEAN ministerial meeting in Laos in July.

There were "frank and open" discussions about Myanmar's alleged human rights abuses and its continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said.

But ASEAN ministers were reluctant to strip Myanmar of the alphabetically rotating chairmanship because it could set a "very dangerous and bad precedent," said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo.

The ministers however told Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win that his country should decide fast whether it wanted to proceed with the chairmanship or find a way to gracefully relinquish it while showing progress on democratic reforms.

"It is a tough decision they got to make. The earlier they make (it), I think the better it is for their own domestic political process," Yeo told reporters after the nine-hour meeting at the Mactan island resort in Cebu.

"What we don't want is for ASEAN to be dragged into their domestic political process which is at a critical and sensitive phase," he stressed.

While ASEAN members could repeatedly call for Aung San Suu Kyi's release it was up to Yangon to resolve the issue.

"Whether all this leads to great joy or tragedy, it is the Myanmar people and not the rest of us, who will bear the consequences," he said.

ASEAN as a collective body did not want to interfere in members' affairs "but we are in danger now of being dragged into (Myanmar's) internal politics."

The Myanmar issue was not formally taken up during the sessions, but was the main topic at an extended coffee break during which Yangon's foreign minister carefully listened to concerns expressed by his colleagues, officials said.

Laos, which chaired the meeting, said foreign ministers would again take up the issue in ministerial meetings in Vientienne.

The issue of Myanmar's chairmanship has exposed divisions in the 10-member bloc, with older members such as the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia demanding real democratic change in the military-ruled country.

Newer members such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos have taken a more supportive stand, some invoking ASEAN's long-held tradition of consensus building and non-interference in the affairs of its members.

Myanmar, internationally condemned for political and rights abuses, including the detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, is due to take the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2006.

The United States and the European Union, which have imposed economic sanctions on the country, have been pressuring the regional grouping to block its chairmanship.

A senior Philippine diplomat at the Cebu retreat said Myanmar could either bend to the calls or make reforms to underscore its commitment to its "road map to democracy".

"It's either they stay by making compromises or voluntarily give up the chairmanship," the diplomat said.

The junta could opt to save face by relinquishing the chairmanship by saying it was busy with the "road map", which includes talks on drawing up a new constitution that have been condemned internationally as a sham.

If they ignored the criticisms and maintained the status quo, the whole of ASEAN risked losing credibility with its Western partners, the diplomat said.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win earlier rejected calls by the European Union and United States for it to give up the ASEAN chairmanship as he arrived in Cebu on Saturday for the retreat.