ASEAN to tell Myanmar to buck up

ASEAN to tell Myanmar to buck up

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Southeast Asian leaders may formally urge Myanmar to speed up democratic reform at a summit in Malaysia but will not set a deadline for the country's military rulers, Indonesia's foreign minister said on Sunday.

"We are still discussing (a statement on Myanmar)," Hassan Wirayuda told Reuters.

Asked whether it would set specific targets for Myanmar to work on, he said:

"For the time being, we can't expect the timelines to be established," he said on Sunday ahead of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"But at least in our discussion, we expect the process in Myanmar could produce tangible results. We measure in terms of tangible results," he said.

In a related development, Malaysia said on Sunday that ASEAN wants to send an envoy to visit Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi, marking an extraordinary step by its own gentle standards of diplomacy.

The regional grouping usually avoids involvement in member states' affairs but is running out of patience with military- ruled Myanmar, saying it feels embarrassed at the junta's lack of progress toward democracy.

"You see Myanmar has always asked us to speak on their behalf. I think we have done that for a long time," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told Reuters in an interview ahead of an ASEAN summit that begins on Monday.

"We cannot be keeping on promising people, yes, we have seen them and, yes, they are committed to the road-map. We must be able to come back to ourselves and say, yes, I have met Aung San Suu Kyi, yes, I have met with some of the political leaders, and they are really undertaking their own political reconciliation."

Malaysia is the current chair of ASEAN and plans to send Syed Hamid to Myanmar to gauge progress toward the country's "road-map to democracy", which is seen as a sham by Western critics. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since 2003.

ASEAN leaders have come under increased U.S. pressure to take a tougher stand on Myanmar, which was pressured into skipping its turn to chair the 10-member grouping next year because U.S. and European diplomats might have boycotted ASEAN's proceedings.

The United Nations Security Council agreed on Dec. 2 for the first time to discuss human rights in Myanmar after its rulers extended the house arrest of Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi for a year.

Pressed for a date by which he expected to travel to Myanmar, Syed Hamid said only it would be better sooner rather than later.

"This is not an easy question," the former lawyer said. "But it is subject to Myanmar themselves agreeing. This shows that we cannot interfere in the sovereignty of another nation. It is up to them. But I think it is positive and very constructive if they open up."

He noted that Razali Ismail, the UN Secretary-General's Malaysian special envoy to Myanmar, had not been permitted to visit the country for a long time.

"He is not welcome to go to Myanmar to finish his report to say what progress has been made. So I think the other vehicle is among us, among friends and colleagues, where we could become a very positive contribution."

But ASEAN was wary of being seen to interfere in Myanmar's affairs, said Syed Hamid, 61, who has been Malaysia's foreign minister since January 1999.