ASEAN MPs threaten Myanmar

ASEAN MPs threaten Myanmar

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur/Vientiane

Myanmar should be suspended from the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) unless the military-run nation makes
progress toward democratic reforms, regional lawmakers said on
Sunday.

"We should review or suspend Myanmar's membership and
chairmanship in 2006 if there is no progress," said Malaysian
lawmaker Zaid Ibrahim, who is also interim president of the ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar.

Zaid said the ruling military junta should urgently and
unconditionally free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
restore her civil and democratic rights and release all other
political prisoners.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The opposition
headed by Suu Kyi won elections in 1990 but was not allowed to
take power.

Lawmakers from ASEAN members Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines,
Thailand and Malaysia attended the three-day meeting on Myanmar.

The lawmakers and activists, in a two-page statement at the
end of the meeting, also called for the restoration of legal and
political authority to the elected parliament through free and
fair elections.

They also said ASEAN should deny Myanmar chairmanship of the
regional grouping in 2006 if the military-run nation fails to
show tangible proof that it is moving towards democracy.

"In the absence of substantial and meaningful democratic and
constitutional reforms in Myanmar, such assumption of the
chairmanship of ASEAN would be severely detrimental to the
interest of ASEAN," the statement said.

In a separate development, officials said in Vientiane on
Sunday that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will push
ASEAN leaders at a summit in Laos to address the lack of
political reform in military-ruled Myanmar,

Thaksin, who is due to have a working breakfast with the
former Burma's new Prime Minister, Soe Win, on Tuesday, wants
Yangon to brief the ASEAN members on the stuttering progress of
its "road map to democracy".

"Prime Minister Thaksin will suggest at the summit that ASEAN
leaders should have an informal discussion on Myanmar to learn
about the latest situation there," government chief spokesman
Jakrapob Penkair said.

"But that request would need to be agreed upon by Myanmar," he
added.