Don't push Myanmar back into isolation: FM

Don't push Myanmar back into isolation: FM

Agence France-Presse, Singapore/Bangkok

The international community should avoid pushing back Myanmar into isolation by imposing or threatening to implement sanctions, the country's foreign minister said in a commentary published in Singapore on Friday.

"Threats and imposition of sanctions are counter-productive," Foreign Minister Win Aung said in the article published in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.

"Sanctions are blunt weapons. They do more harm than good. For many years now, all forms of development assistance have been denied Myanmar by international finance institutions."

He added: "It is one thing to criticize and adopt sanctions. It is quite another to ensure that 52 million people are well- fed, well-clothed and well-sheltered."

The army-ruled Southeast Asian nation has come under international pressure to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested in May after a pro-government mob attacked her supporters during a political tour north of the capital Yangon.

Myanmar's ruling junta has accused the democracy activists of inciting the clashes, saying Suu Kyi had been temporarily detained for her own safety.

But Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the international community have demanded the release of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which is seen as key to the resumption of talks toward national reconciliation.

Both Canada and the European Union have imposed tighter sanctions on Myanmar, while the country's largest donor Japan has suspended new economic aid.

The U.S. Senate earlier this month approved legislation imposing sanctions on Myanmar's ruling generals.

But Win Aung in his article argued that the blame for the failure of national reconciliation talks should not be put entirely on the government.

"The problem involving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is but one of many. If there exists sincere goodwill on all sides, the problems of the country can be satisfactorily resolved. It needs two to tango," he wrote.

Myanmar, under the current government, has signed peace agreements with 17 armed groups in the country but still faces other insurgencies.

In addition, it also needs to alleviate poverty, restructure the economy and write a new constitution, among others, as it comes out of a self-imposed isolation by the previous socialist government.

"Why push Myanmar back into the shell from which it has emerged?" Win Aung said.

On Thursday, foreign ministers from Europe and Asia meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali demanded the immediate release of Suu Kyi.

They also called upon Yangon "to resume its efforts toward national reconciliation and democracy" in a statement issued after the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), whose 10 Asian members do not include Myanmar.

Separately, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders must address the political deadlock in Myanmar in order to strengthen the grouping.

"This is the issue that we have to tackle among ASEAN leaders in order to strengthen ASEAN. When ASEAN is strong it will benefit everybody," he told reporters.

Thaksin on Thursday offered to act as a mediator in the crisis.

Thaksin will this weekend hold talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir which will focus on the political tensions in Myanmar.