EU, ASEAN meet after Myanmar rights delays

EU, ASEAN meet after Myanmar rights delays

BANGKOK (Reuters): Officials from the European Union (EU) and
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered on
Monday for their first bloc-to-bloc meeting in two years with
ties still strained by Myanmar's human rights record.

The joint cooperation committee meeting, which goes into full
session on Wednesday and Thursday, will cover trade, economic and
industrial cooperation as well as initiatives on drugs and the
environment.

It has twice been postponed since military-ruled Myanmar
joined ASEAN in 1997, but a compromise was finally reached
allowing Myanmar to attend but not speak.

"Everyone felt the meeting had to go ahead and so a certain
compromise has been reached," said Thai government spokesman
Akapol Sorasuchart.

EU sanctions, which bar senior Myanmar officials from entering
Europe, forced cancellation of an ASEAN-EU foreign ministers'
meeting due to have been held earlier this year.

The sanctions were imposed because of Myanmar's treatment of
its pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi. Her party won a 1990 election by a landslide, but the
military ignored the result and detained many of its members.

Myanmar delegate Aye Lwin, the director-general of the Yangon
Foreign Ministry's ASEAN affairs department, told Reuters he did
not want to comment on Myanmar's status at the meeting.

"It's a really sensitive arrangement Thailand has undertaken
and I don't want at this point in time to complicate things."

However, asked about the EU sanctions, he replied: "I think
it's a pity that they have a political agenda on Myanmar."

Senior Thai delegate Anucha Osathanond, director-general of
Thailand's ASEAN department, said he hoped the meeting would lead
to lead to a ministerial conference "at a later date" but neither
he nor EU officials were optimistic this would get off the ground
any time soon given the EU ban on Myanmar officials.

"This meeting shows the EU and ASEAN are at least on talking
terms," Anucha said. "We last met in 1997, and since then things
have backed up, slowed down and some projects have expired."

Asked if Thailand was irritated by the blockage caused by
Myanmar's rights record, he said: "We are concerned about the
human rights situation in Myanmar."

Thailand came under fire at the weekend for defending Yangon
by blocking an International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
conference on forced labor and democracy in Myanmar, due to have
started in Bangkok on Monday.

The confederation said Bangkok was allowing itself to be used
by a country with an appalling human rights record. This cast
doubt on the credibility of Thailand's current efforts to win the
leadership of the World Trade Organization, it said.

Opponents of the Thai candidate for the top WTO post, Supachai
Panitchpakdi, accuse Thailand of doing too little to defend labor
rights.

But government spokesman Akapol said Bangkok believed it
should not allow its soil to be used to attack any other country.
He said Thailand had a good record on labor rights and he did not
think the decision would affect Supachai's campaign.