Despite frustrations, ASEAN defends junta
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite the deep disappointment and frustration by most of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members over the stubborn rejections by the Myanmar junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the regional grouping is publicly backing Myanmar in the face of European pressure.
ASEAN spokespeople have tried hard to play down the European Union's threat to cancel the next biennial Asia-Europe summit in October in Hanoi unless ASEAN drops its demand to include Myanmar at the summit.
ASEAN insisted that all of its partners agreed to accept all three of the newest ASEAN members -- Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar -- as participants at the summit. The EU has stated that it would not come if Myanmar is included -- unless the Suu Kyi issue is resolved by then -- and it has canceled two earlier ministerial meetings with Asian partners. The EU also has a visa ban in place against Myanmar.
"I think everyone must be able to understand that in ASEAN we would like to see that each ASEAN country move according to its own pace and comfort level to see that we move toward democracy," Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday.
Marty Natalegawa, the foreign ministry's director-general for ASEAN cooperation, meanwhile said, "The ball is very much in the European Union's court, in the sense that they have, in a way, put themselves in this situation by placing the Myanmar issue higher than anything else, more than the benefit of Asia-Europe cooperation."
According to Marty, who is also the Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman, ASEAN and the EU will discuss the issue on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on Friday.
Marty added that the two sides were driven by the same concern over the democratization process in Myanmar.
"It's not our belief that we should be trying to outdo one another in showing who is the most upset and who is the most disturbed by the developments in Myanmar, but this is not a forum to try to compete and outdo one another."
Myanmar foreign minister U Win Aung did not say anything groundbreaking, but insisted that Suu Kyi was not in a prison.
"I cannot say when it (democratization) will be finished, but we are doing it," he said after a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda on Tuesday.
He also confirmed that Suu Kyi was in good condition.
"She is one individual, she has her own freedom," he said. "We are not locking her up, she is at her home," he added.
Marty said that ASEAN was expected to issue its stance on Myanmar by Wednesday, after Win Aung briefs other ministers on the Suu Kyi issue.
"ASEAN's stance is still very much being worked on." he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will seek action on Myanmar from the Southeast Asian grouping during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on Friday, a U.S. official said.
"What he is going to do is to urge more action by ASEAN in believing that we, in the United States, have taken a particular position on sanctions," Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner told Agence France-Presse in Washington.
Craner did not say whether the United States would propose any specific action.