EU to press ASEAN over human rights in Myanmar

EU to press ASEAN over human rights in Myanmar

HANOI (Agencies): British Foreign Office Minister John Battle said on Thursday ASEAN's position of non-interference in Myanmar's affairs was unsustainable and warned Yangon's generals they were accountable for rights violations.

Battle told journalists during a visit to Vietnam that human rights in military-ruled Myanmar would top the agenda of a meeting of ministers from the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations in Laos next week.

Battle, who will represent Britain at the Dec. 11-12 meeting, said he would be looking for understanding among the 10 ASEAN members that Myanmar had become a regional problem they could no longer brush off as Yangon's "internal affair".

He said his aim would be "to see if we can dismantle a traditional response that is unsustainable."

Battle said Myanmar's "appalling" conditions were a regional problem due to large numbers of refugees fleeing repression and the threat of the spread of HIV/AIDS from the country.

"There is a growing awareness that the ASEAN countries have of the problem and they are starting to speak out," he said.

He said both the European Union and ASEAN were looking for a new approach and said the intention in Vientiane would not be "to simply turn up and blame Burma (Myanmar) and say we think you are a form of moral evil".

He pointed to the example of Vietnam, saying there were similar prospects of economic aid and investment for Myanmar in the event of positive change.

"What we need to see is an opening of Burma...so we're trying to find ways to actually prize the situation open by using the political power that's in the region -- they are a member of ASEAN."

He warned Myanmar's generals they could have to answer for their actions.

"There's no way this kind of action in any society can be unaccountable at the end of the day. The question is how many people have to suffer and die before accountability bites in.

"I think we can do something together to point out that we are all politically, socially and economically accountable."

Thailand said on Wednesday the Vientiane meeting, the first of its kind in three years, would be attended by 14 foreign ministers, but only four of them from Europe.

Britain, Italy, Sweden, Portugal, Greece and Ireland will be represented by deputy foreign ministers and France and the Netherlands by other unidentified ministers.

Political analysts have previously speculated that the meeting could be scrapped due to profound disagreements over the presence of Myanmar, which was admitted to ASEAN in 1997.

The European Union considers Myanmar a rogue state and objects to its treatment of its pro-democracy opposition, led by detained 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

ASEAN has traditionally held to a policy of non-interference in what it calls the internal affairs of members, although some members, notably Thailand, have criticized this stance.

Meanwhile, the international press watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) condemned on Thursday the lack of press freedom in three ASEAN nations as the bloc prepared to join EU ministers for a landmark meeting.

In Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos "there is no press freedom and dissident journalists face heavy jail sentences ... the state controls the press with an iron fist," it said in a statement.

The media rights groups expressed its "indignation" at Myanmar's presence at the ASEAN-EU meeting in the Laotian capital Vientiane Dec. 11-12.

The two blocs are meeting at a ministerial level there for the first time since relations cooled in the wake of Myanmar's admission in 1997.

The Paris-based group said at least 12 journalists were being held in jail in Myanmar under "appalling conditions" and the military junta had stepped up censorship since placing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest more than two months ago.

RSF also criticized three other ASEAN members, Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia, for "restrictive press laws (which) do not allow pluralistic expression in the news".

In Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, press freedom was "relatively good", it said.

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