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.