Calling off of EU-ASEAN summit surprises few
Calling off of EU-ASEAN summit surprises few
By Stefan Klein
SINGAPORE (DPA): As if European Union representatives needed
another reason to avoid sitting down with representatives of
Myanmar's military regime, the masters of Yangon came along with
another timely example of their inability to change for the
better.
Instead of actually talking with their opponent, Nobel peace
prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, over a possible transition to
democracy in the country, they have again reduced her freedom of
movement.
She sat in her parked car for 10 hours last Friday to protest
the junta's decision to prevent her from traveling to a meeting
of her National League for Democracy the previous day.
It is this absolute inflexibility of the human rights
violators which first put them on the track to confrontation not
only with the EU but with the United States, as well.
There is, admittedly, a little bit of hypocrisy in all this:
it is always easy to play the moralist when one has little to
lose.
The Chinese government's human rights record is no better than
that of the Myanmar generals, but China is handled with kid
gloves because it is simply too important to foreign investors.
The comparatively unimportant Myanmar and its "immoral, brutal
leaders," as U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has
described them, is much easier to slap around.
On the other hand, the American and EU positions vis-a-vis
Myanmar have long been known to ASEAN, yet it made Myanmar and
Laos the club's newest members in July. ASEAN's existing member
governments knew full well that would meet with displeasure in
the EU, which had signaled its determination to have nothing to
do with the Myanmar government by stopping its officials meeting
those of the Yangon regime.
So the first conflict of the planned annual EU-ASEAN summits
was pre-programmed. With the Asians refusing to back down, the EU
decided it could not send its representatives to meet with
ASEAN's at planned talks on customs and trade issues in Bangkok
today, knowing a Myanmar official would be at the table.
Of course, the canceled meeting does not mean an end to
cooperation between the two regional groupings. There have been
other disputes in the past, notably over East Timor.
Still, this latest disagreement will doubtlessly dampen the
enthusiasm expressed by both sides at the first EU-ASEAN summit
in March 1996. At the time, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl lauded
a "trusting, broad and long-lasting partnership" and celebrated
Europe's growing interest in east Asia.
The next EU-ASEAN summit is planned for London in April. So
there will be another feud over the pariah regime in Yangon by
then at the latest.