Jakarta won't agree to compromise on Myanmar issue in upcoming ASEM
Jakarta won't agree to compromise on Myanmar issue in upcoming ASEM
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Indonesia brushed aside a compromise solution to the problem of
Myanmar's participation in the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) in Hanoi in October, though both Indonesia and the
European Union (EU) have agreed that the summit must go ahead as
scheduled.
Some Western diplomats have privately suggested a compromise,
under which the military-ruled state would be represented by
junior level officials at the ASEM summit, not its prime
minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt.
Jakarta rejected the suggestion outright and reiterated that
the decision on who would represent a country at the summit was
up to each sovereign nation.
"(It) is unacceptable to us if the level of a sovereign
nation's participation in a summit is decided by other states,"
foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said in Jakarta on
Friday.
"The Myanmarese have to decide themselves whether they will be
represented by their state leader or not. This is (ASEAN)'s basic
position, which is nonnegotiable," he said.
During Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot's recent visit to
Jakarta, both Indonesia and The Netherlands, which currently
holds the EU presidency, agreed that the biennial summit,
scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, should be held as scheduled.
During his three-day visit, which ended on Friday, Bot met
with Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Myanmar's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) have long insisted that if the EU wants to
include its 10 new member states in the ASEM summit, Myanmar,
along with Cambodia and Laos, must also be represented.
But EU members have pressed hard for Yangon to be kept out of
the six-year-old forum because of the junta's repression of
political opponents, in particular the house arrest of democratic
icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The EU had canceled two ministerial meetings with its Asian
partners because of Myanmar's attendance. The EU has a visa ban
in place against the military rulers of Myanmar.
During their annual meetings both in Phnom Penh in 2003 and in
Jakarta in 2004, ASEAN foreign ministers urged the junta to
release Suu Kyi.
The issue of Myanmar has posed a challenge to Dutch diplomacy
since the Netherlands took over the EU presidency on July 1,
2004.
The Netherlands, the former colonial ruler of Indonesia, sent
former foreign minister Van den Broek to Asia last month on
behalf of the EU to resolve the diplomatic row over Myanmar's
participation in ASEM.
Marty said the ministers of the EU would decide their stance
on the row during a meeting next week.