ASEAN MPs call for Myanmar junta ejection

ASEAN MPs call for Myanmar junta ejection

Reuters, Bangkok

A group of Southeast Asian politicians called on Friday for Myanmar's military junta to be kicked out of the ASEAN regional political bloc within a year unless it gets serious about democratic reform.

"We cannot tolerate this any more," outspoken Thai senator Kraisak Choonhavan -- an old friend of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- told a news conference. "We need our respective governments in Asia to do more."

Claiming some of the credit for the junta's decision to skip its turn as chairman of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in 2006, the MPs said the international community should not ease the pressure on Yangon's generals.

Teresa Kok, secretary of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said: "The AIPMC resolves to call for the suspension of Myanmar from ASEAN if it fails to bring democratic reforms in the country in the next 12 months."

They also backed a call from retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav Havel -- both of whom, like Suu Kyi, are Nobel Laureates -- to have Myanmar referred to the United Nations Security Council.

"The deteriorating situation in Myanmar is affecting not only those within the country, but people outside its borders as well," AIPMC said in a statement.

"Quite apart from its truly disgraceful human rights record, Myanmar's troubles, ranging from ethnic conflicts and refugee outflows to drugs and the unchecked spread of HIV/AIDS, have become a serious cause for concern for ASEAN and the international community."

Myanmar, or Burma as it was called, has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta, which seized power in 1988 and ignored a crushing defeat in 1990 elections, says it is restoring civilian rule via a seven-step "road map to democracy".

Nearly all foreign officials consider the plan a sham, especially while Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.

ASEAN admitted Myanmar in 1997 in the hope of teasing out democratic reform. So far, that effort has failed and the generals' pariah status has damaged the group's credibility.