Meeting calls for arms embargo on Myanmar

Meeting calls for arms embargo on Myanmar

MANILA (Agencies): Leading Asian democrats urged China and
southeast Asian nations yesterday to impose an arms embargo
against Myanmar and asked the international business community
not to invest there until a new government was in place.

The democrats, including former Philippine president Corazon
Aquino and South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, also
called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to
delay any decision on admitting Myanmar as a member.

Delegates from about 20 countries came up with the
recommendations at the end of a two-day meeting in Manila to
discuss Myanmar.

The meeting was organized by the Forum of Democratic Leaders
in the Asia-Pacific, a non-government group.

The group's "Manila declaration" also included a call for the
restoration of democracy in Myanmar "without delay and without
violence, through a process of dialog and in a spirit of
achieving national reconciliation among all parties involved".

"It is not yet time for Burma (Myanmar) to join the ASEAN
until it has fixed its human rights record," said Sein Win,
"prime minister" of the self-proclaimed Myanmar government-in-
exile and a cousin of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"It is not good for ASEAN to include it (Myanmar) now since,
in essence, an illegal regime would be joining," said Sein Win,
who joined 160 other delegates at the conference, entitled
"Transitions from Dictatorship to Democracy: Lesson for Burma and
Asia."

Sein Win fled Myanmar along with other members of Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy after the Myanmar military's State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) prevented the political
party from taking power in 1990 when it won a national election.

Myanmar has observer status in the ASEAN regional grouping and
hopes to become a full member at its next formal meeting in July.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

AFP reported from Yangon yesterday that at least a dozen
people were detained after supporters of Suu Kyi scuffled with
alleged infiltrators at an opposition gathering.

Among those detained yesterday were Buddhist monks who had
positioned themselves between security officials and supporters
of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), a witness
said.

It could not immediately be determined whether they were still
being held yesterday.

The crowd of several hundred had gathered at an intersection
some two kilometers (more than a mile) from Suu Kyi's home after
she was prevented for the sixth consecutive weekend from
addressing the public at her gate.

NLD activists reportedly came to blows with men in civilian
dress whom they suspected were military-backed infiltrators.
Earlier, police were seen to shepherd a number of unidentified
men into the crowd.