ASEAN to discuss Cambodian crisis

ASEAN to discuss Cambodian crisis

By Bill Tarrant

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Foreign ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be under considerable
pressure to defer Cambodia's membership when they meet in
Malaysia today, analysts said.

Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were set to become members of ASEAN
at the end of this month, realizing a dream of its founders to
have all 10 Southeast Asian nations in the grouping.

But that tidy tableau was thrown into disarray when Cambodia's
Second Prime Minister Hun Sen launched a virtual coup against
First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh in weekend clashes that
killed at least 58 people and wounded 200.

The victims included a senior interior ministry official loyal
to Ranariddh, who was executed. Several other senior Ranariddh
officials were said to be in hiding.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said yesterday ASEAN
had not ruled out the possibility of postponing Cambodia's entry
into the seven-member grouping.

"If that is the desired consensus of ASEAN foreign ministers,
then of course," he told reporters.

Malaysia is this year's chairman of ASEAN, which also groups
Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

As host of ASEAN's annual meeting on July 21-29, Kuala Lumpur
is probably the keenest to induct the new members on schedule,
diplomats and analysts said.

Malaysia's Acting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told reporters
yesterday ASEAN was sticking to the original schedule for
Cambodia's admission for now. But he added: "We're asking our
Foreign Ministry to discuss with other ASEAN foreign ministries
the possibility of a change."

Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines are thought to be
leaning toward deferring the whole issue at least till the end of
the year, when ASEAN holds an informal summit in Kuala Lumpur,
diplomats said.

"ASEAN has no choice but to delay the whole process," said
Abdul Razak Baginda, head of the Malaysian Strategic Center. "It
would be a de facto recognition of Hun Sen's coup d'etat. ASEAN
would look very bad."

Abdul Razak said ASEAN played a key part in the Paris Peace
Accords that ended a two-decade civil war and paved the way for
the 1993 elections won by Ranariddh's party.

Deferring Cambodia's admission would also affect Myanmar and
Laos, analysts said.

ASEAN heads of state decided at last year's informal summit in
Jakarta to admit Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia as a group this year.
They left it to their foreign ministers to fix the date, and they
decided on May 31 to admit the three at the July meeting.

Analysts said the decision to induct the three as a group was
a way of deflecting an international outcry over admitting
Myanmar, whose military rulers have been accused of widespread
human rights abuses in cracking down on a democracy movement.

"It could be a blessing in disguise," Abdul Razak said of the
Cambodian crisis. "ASEAN now has a way of circumventing the
pressure over Myanmar."

ASEAN has argued strenuously it is admitting countries not
governments and that in any case the grouping can exert more
influence on rogue rulers from within the family fold as part of
its policy of "constructive engagement".

It has long maintained that it cannot interfere with the
domestic concerns of its members, especially when governments of
current members range from a communist one-party state in
Vietnam, an absolute monarchy in Brunei, an authoritarian
government in Indonesia and free-wheeling democracies in Thailand
and the Philippines.

But the grouping also has a long history of diplomatic
involvement in Cambodia. Indonesia's Alatas was an architect of
the Paris accords, which Washington said on Tuesday had been
ruptured by Hun Sen.

In the 1980s, ASEAN supported a guerrilla coalition that
included Ranariddh's faction and the Khmer Rouge against a
Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh led by Hun Sen.