Barring Myanmar not productive: Malaysia

Barring Myanmar not productive: Malaysia

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia rejected demands on Thursday to exclude Myanmar from a summit of Southeast Asian leaders next month if the military government does not free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and initiate democratic reforms.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would "get nowhere" by freezing Myanmar out of its annual summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said two months ago that Myanmar, also known as Burma, could eventually be expelled from ASEAN as a last resort if the government fails to free Suu Kyi, though such a decision would require consensus.

"Isolating them will not be productive," Syed Hamid told reporters. "We should encourage them, in order for them not to be sidelined or to be marginalized."

Malaysia's opposition Democratic Action Party urged the government to pressure Myanmar to free Suu Kyi, who has been detained at an undisclosed location since her arrest after a May 30 clash between her supporters and a pro-government mob in northern Myanmar.

"The Malaysian government must play a leading role in ASEAN to pressure the military junta ... failing which the Myanmar military junta must be excluded from the ASEAN summit and its membership in ASEAN be expelled immediately," the party said in a statement.

Syed Hamid said on Thursday that ASEAN should support Myanmar's newly appointed prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt, and a "road map" that he has proposed for democratic reforms.

Khin Nyunt, who has sat in the supreme military councils running Myanmar since a pro-democracy uprising was crushed in bloodshed in 1988, has made no offers to hold talks with Suu Kyi or given a timetable for promised elections.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party overwhelmingly won elections more than a decade ago, but the junta refused to yield power. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 15 years under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the United States took a new swipe at perennial foes North Korea, Myanmar and Cuba on Wednesday, saddling them with a fresh tier of sanctions -- to punish what it said was a lack of effort in combating the modern day slave trade.

The three states, which rarely escape the U.S. doghouse, fell foul of a U.S. survey on human trafficking, and the largely symbolic measures will bar them from any U.S. military, educational or cultural aid.

The "continuing failure" of Myanmar, Cuba and North Korea to deal responsibly with human trafficking gave Bush no option but to sanction them, said White House press spokesman Scott McClellan in a statement.

Myanmar, which exchanges frequent verbal fire with Washington, has also rejected the charges, and on Monday announced that it had uncovered 223 cases of human trafficking this year.

Scores of youths from Myanmar, particularly girls, are routinely swept into the sex trade, lured to neighboring countries like Thailand.