Rights activists urge ASEAN to pressure Myanmar govt

Rights activists urge ASEAN to pressure Myanmar govt

BANGKOK (Reuter): Asian human rights activists urged southeast
Asian nations yesterday to follow the United States and Europe
and put more pressure on Myanmar's military rulers over human
rights abuses.

"We think the situation in Burma (Myanmar) is getting worse,"
Somchai Homlaor, secretary general of the Asian Forum for Human
Rights and Development, told Reuters.

The seven-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) "should work harder to put pressure on SLORC," he said,
referring to Myanmar's ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council.

The European Union imposed strict limits on Monday on contacts
with SLORC officials.

The action, similar to recent moves by Washington, bars visas
to SLORC members and their families and to some senior military
members as part of a build-up of pressure on Myanmar's ruling
junta. The 15-member EU also suspended all high-level EU visits
to Myanmar.

Somchai was speaking before the start of a two-day
"Alternative ASEAN" meeting involving more than 80 activists,
academics and exiled Myanmar's people from 50 organizations
around Asia.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss how ASEAN -- which
groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore,
Brunei and Vietnam -- could better influence Myanmar.

ASEAN has a policy of "constructive engagement" aimed at
keeping Myanmar from becoming isolated in order to try and reform
it from within. Yangon has observer status to ASEAN and has
applied to join the group at its next formal meeting in July.

Western nations oppose Myanmar's entry into ASEAN because of
the military regime's human rights record and its failure to
enter into dialog with the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Organizers of the Alternative ASEAN meeting welcomed the
pressure on Myanmar's military government by the EU and United
States but said further steps needed to be taken by Asian
countries.

"It is the first step, but it is not enough. The international
community should put harder pressure on SLORC, like economic
sanctions," said Gothom Arya, a political scientist at
Chulalongkorn University and host of the meeting.

"ASEAN should do the same," he said. "We are in a much more
important position, at least geographically. We are from the same
culture ... As neighbors to Burma we should do more."

A Myanmar official said on Monday that the EU move would have
little impact because SLORC officials did not travel much to the
West.

The junta's latest crackdown on the democracy movement -- when
it detained 573 activists to prevent an NLD meeting from taking
place in late September -- and detention last week of Kyi Maung,
deputy chairman of the NLD, sparked world condemnation.

The SLORC has said all the activists have since been freed.
Kyi Maung, 75, was released on Monday after being held in a
government guesthouse for a week for questioning over his alleged
role in a rare student protest.

The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but never
assumed power after the SLORC, which organized the poll, refused
to recognize the results.

ASEAN's constructive engagement strategy came into question
earlier this month when Philippine President Fidel Ramos said
leaders of the group might review the policy. His comments
followed the fresh crackdown on the NLD.