RP to lead pressure against Myanmar

RP to lead pressure against Myanmar

PHILIPPINES: The Philippines will lead pressure to strip Myanmar
of the ASEAN chairmanship in 2006 during an international inter-
parliamentary meeting, the country's top legislator said on
Tuesday.

Legislators from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) will meet in Manila on the sidelines of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting on April 3 to call for
reforms in Myanmar, said Senate president Franklin Drilon.

Some 1,500 legislators from Asia, Europe and America will
attend the six-day IPU meeting, which would serve as a forum for
issues relating to world peace and democracy.

"The ASEAN parliamentarians will meet in order to come up with
a strategy as to how the different governments in ASEAN will
address the issue of Myanmar and compel Myanmar to have a
definite timetable on the road map to democracy," Drilon told
reporters. -- AFP