European Union expects ASEAN to act on Myanmar

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

SINGAPORE (JP): The European Union yesterday urged members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take a stronger stance in urging Myanmar to improve its human rights record.

Dutch foreign minister Hans van Mierlo, acting EU president, said Europe did not wish to interfere in ASEAN's relations with Yangon, but said members must make an effort to spur improvement.

"We can't tell you what to do but we count on you to do it," Mierlo said.

Mierlo was speaking here after the closing of a two-day meeting between EU and ASEAN foreign ministers.

The issue of Myanmar was a central concern for the EU; ministers spent a two-hour working lunch Thursday briefing each other on the issue.

EU members have strongly criticized the military regime in Yangon for its suppression of the country's pro-democracy movement.

ASEAN has rejected EU's isolationist approach towards Yangon, instead pursuing a policy of constructive engagement.

ASEAN watchers predict Myanmar will be admitted as a full member of the association later this year.

Mierlo underlined the EU's concern with developments in Myanmar: "What is happening in Myanmar is absolutely unacceptable."

Differing approaches to the problem did not mean ASEAN was exempt from ensuring basic human rights and encouraging an improvement of conditions in Myanmar, he argued.

"Where ever there are violations of human rights we have to fight them together, even though our instruments are different," Mierlo said. "Please ASEAN members: do what you can in your region."

Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar defended ASEAN's policy, saying ASEAN had used a different approach to the issue.

ASEAN, he said, had a tradition of doing things quietly, as opposed to the EU's more public diplomacy.

"Individual ASEAN countries have conveyed their views and concerns to the government of Myanmar in a quiet and non- confrontational way," said Jayakumar, co-chair of the meeting with Mierlo.

Jayakumar rejected EU suggestions that ASEAN should set conditions on Myanmar's entry to the association: "We have never imposed any precondition regarding the internal political system of the members".

"In Asia," Jayakumar said, "we marry first and expect the bride to adapt her behavior after the marriage."

"Once Myanmar joins ASEAN, it would be influenced by her peers and accept the need to engage in a dialog with ASEAN's partners," he said.

Concern over Myanmar was left out of the Joint Declaration issued at the end of the meeting, with only a one line reference to the foreign ministers having "an exchange of views on Myanmar."

Reports from Kuala Lumpur said yesterday that Malaysian human rights activists pressed members of ASEAN to ditch their policy of "constructive engagement" with Myanmar.

"The so-called ASEAN constructive engagement policy has failed in putting a rein on the Burmese (Myanmar) military junta," said Fan Yew Teng, spokesman for some 30 activists representing the Burma Solidarity Group Malaysia.

Activists delivered a memorandum to Badawi urging him to work for an immediate halt to human rights violations by Myanmar's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).