EU keeps human rights on Ministers' agenda

EU keeps human rights on Ministers' agenda

SINGAPORE (AFP): European officials yesterday insisted that human rights and Myanmar should remain on the agenda when European Union (EU) foreign ministers meet their Southeast Asian counterparts this week.

Officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) warned that the momentum of ASEAN's expanding ties with the EU could be set back if disputes, including East Timor, took center stage.

"We've come here in a spirit of cooperation. We would like to see the cooperation move forward, not backward," said Rahardjo Jamtomo, an Indonesian delegate to the two-day ASEAN-EU senior officials' meeting which opened Tuesday.

Jamtomo asked the EU side to "not bring issues which are extraneous and irrelevant to this meeting."

He said ASEAN was united in opposing discussion on East Timor, a former Portuguese colony integrated as part of Indonesia in 1976.

ASEAN leaders warned after a Nov. 30 summit in Jakarta that introducing East Timor would lead to "unwarranted aggravation in ASEAN-EU relations." Indonesia has threatened to walk out if East Timor is raised here.

Myanmar's prospective membership in ASEAN could also become a contentious subject, with EU states wanting greater pressure on the military dictatorship. Asian nations have adopted a policy of "constructive engagement. "

Dutch official Joris Vos, whose government holds the EU presidency, said he could not rule out a discussion on East Timor, conceding that it was a problem, despite the issue not being on the official agenda.

"There will be certainly a discussion of human rights issues," said Vos, director-general for political affairs at the Dutch foreign affairs ministry.

Vos said European countries were "very much worried" about Myanmar.

Foreign ministers of the seven-member ASEAN and the 15-nation EU will meet tomorrow and Friday to discuss ways to broaden political, economic and cultural ties.

The talks will be followed Saturday by a broader meeting involving China, Japan and South Korea, part of preparations for a second summit of a new forum, the Asia-Europe Meeting in London next year.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The EU groups Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

"I am just hoping that officials and ministers of both sides will see that there is tremendous potential in working on a positive agenda and not allow our different perspectives -- two issues really -- to wreck the meeting," a senior ASEAN diplomat said.

ASEAN officials want the focus to be on economic cooperation, trade and investments.

Europe also holds a relatively small portion of the total foreign direct investment in the region estimated at 250 billion dollars.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International yesterday called for "a constructive and open discussion on human rights issues" in Singapore.

In a statement issued in Brussels, the EU's headquarters, Amnesty charged Europe with being more concerned with good economic relations than human rights issues.