ASEAN vows to boost image but quiet on Myanmar

ASEAN vows to boost image but quiet on Myanmar

HANOI (Agencies): Information ministers from the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) vowed on Friday to boost the
group's image but declined to address the biggest international
criticism leveled against it -- its inaction over Myanmar.

In two days of talks here, the ASEAN ministers agreed "an
immediate program of action" was essential to "address the
current image problem," a final statement said.

"Ministers strongly recommended that in view of current
perceptions about ASEAN and their effects on its image and work,
ASEAN should plan and formulate strategies ... to advance and
reinforce a positive international profile," it said.

"We have agreed on several action plans to restore confidence
back to ASEAN and to put up a united front to counter negative
media reporting," Brunei's Culture Minister Hussein Mohamad Yusof
told the closing session of a meeting in Hanoi seeking ways to
brush up the regional bloc's image.

Asked by reporters if ASEAN's image was not more in the hands
of military-ruled Myanmar and its treatment of its pro-democracy
opposition than ASEAN as whole, he replied: "No comment".

The representatives of all ASEAN 10-member countries remained
silent when asked at a later news conference whether they were
united in a policy not to send a team to mediate in Myanmar.

ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said the question
should be addressed to foreign ministers.

ASEAN agreed in July in Bangkok to form a "troika" of three
members to try to help resolve political and security disputes.

Last month, Thailand's The Nation newspaper quoted diplomats
as saying United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan had
suggested the troika help in Myanmar, where the opposition
leadership was being held under house arrest.

On Thursday, Severino told Reuters there was "no question of
mediation", but Supatra Masdit, a minister in the Thai prime
minister's office, said she was for mediation and this should be
discussed at foreign ministry level.

Asked if Malaysia supported mediation, its information
minister Khalil Yaakob referred to a mission led by UN special
envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat.

"The fact that Malaysia agrees to the appointment of one of
our foremost diplomats appointed by the UN shows we are
contributing to any effort, to any improvement in the situation,"
Khalil said.

ASEAN has a policy of not interfering in the internal affairs
of member nations, which has consistently rankled the European
Union and Washington.

Current holder of the revolving ASEAN chairmanship Vietnam,
has along with other members steadfastly opposed proposals to
send a troika of foreign ministers to Yangon.

Severino insisted that the issue of intervention in Myanmar
was outside the information ministers' remit.

"The ASEAN troika, as you know, is an instrumentality of the
foreign ministers and I think any question of the troika will
have to be addressed by them," he said.

He said there were other areas where the grouping had failed
to get its message across and where more effective public
relations could improve its image.

He cited as an example the massive forest fires which have
raged across the region, most notably in 1997, and the effective
measures ASEAN had taken to counter them.

"The problem received a great deal of the attention but the
measures to resolve them did not receive any." Severino said the
same had been true of ASEAN's efforts to forge greater regional
economic integration.

Ministers also agreed to defer a proposed ASEAN satellite TV
channel indefinitely after complaints from some members about the
costs. "It's not been canceled altogether," Severino said. But
"resources are by their nature limited."

Instead ASEAN will seek to strengthen the existing exchange of
programming between member states as well as boosting the airtime
it receives for its work.