Thailand is likely to join Myanmar in ASEAN hot-seat

Thailand is likely to join Myanmar in ASEAN hot-seat

Agencies, Vientiane

With the clock ticking to Myanmar's scheduled leadership of ASEAN in 2006, Southeast Asian leaders meeting next week are likely to ask the junta tough questions about its faltering progress towards democracy.

For once, however, Yangon's reclusive generals will not be the only ones in the hot-seat at the annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), being held this year in the Lao capital, Vientiane.

Thailand's handling of the unchecked violence in its Muslim south, which has claimed nearly 500 lives this year, has strained diplomatic ties with fellow ASEAN member Malaysia and sparked outrage in Muslim nations such as Indonesia.

It has also stoked fears as far away as Washington that the poorly policed region along the Malaysia border might become a breeding ground for international militant groups such as al- Qaeda or its local affiliate Jamaah Islamiyah.

As usual with ASEAN, a ten-member grouping loath to interfere in a member's internal affairs, a public airing of dirty laundry is highly unlikely.

But as a former champion of institutional openness -- or "flexible intervention" -- in the 1990s, Thailand could come under pressure to reveal what it is doing to deal with a century- old problem which now has regional implications.

"The chicken has really come home to roost," said K.S. Nathan of Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies. "The Thais will be forced to assert the principle of non-interference."

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made it quite clear on Thursday he would brook no criticism from his peers.

"If there is any attempt to raise the issue at the ASEAN summit, I will fly straight home. I will treat it as a serious breach of etiquette," he told reporters.

ASEAN's members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines -- are also likely to have a "robust" chat on the subject of Myanmar democracy, according to group secretary-general Ong Keng Yong.

At last year's summit, Yangon won formal support for a "roadmap to democracy", but since that meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, the only movement appears to have been backwards.

Opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest and Khin Nyunt, the prime minister who introduced the "roadmap" -- which Western governments have derided as a sham -- was purged last month.

However, Yangon insisted the plan was still on track.

"The new prime minister will be taking that message to the ASEAN summit," Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu told Reuters in an exclusive interview in the capital of the former Burma.

"He will give an assurance to other heads of state and government that the roadmap is still on. There is no option apart from this seven step road map."

Kyaw Thu said Yangon would not shirk its responsibilities when Myanmar assumes the rotating leadership of one of the few international groups to admit the otherwise spurned junta.

"We have to take our turn unless the other nine countries say differently. We will not shy away from our duty," he said.

He said the military was going ahead with its promised mass release of prisoners and a top dissident who was San Suu Kyi's closest aide will be among them.

Myanmar has given a pre-emptive warning that it does not want its internal affairs to be discussed at a regional summit.

"I don't think the ASEAN would want to discuss internal affairs. Everybody has internal affairs, but you know in every country there are transformations, including Myanmar," he told The Associated Press.

ASEAN members have tradition of avoiding interference in each other's internal affairs.

But the international outcry over Myanmar's continued detention of democracy campaigner Suu Kyi has made neighboring countries uneasy. European objections to Myanmar's participation in a Europe-Asia summit last month in Vietnam nearly scuttled that meeting.

Momentum is growing to break from tradition and call Myanmar to task, Thai officials said on condition of anonymity.

Khin Nyunt's removal was followed by the purge of a few other ministers and deputy ministers as well as dozens of senior intelligence officers.