U.S. holds back on support for Myanmar dialog

U.S. holds back on support for Myanmar dialog

BANGKOK (Reuter): The United States yesterday stood firm on
its policy of continued isolation of Myanmar's ruling junta
despite an apparent shift by other Western countries.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Joan Spero told the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that Washington could only
build a productive relationship with Yangon if Myanmar began
genuine efforts on political and human-rights reform.

"While we share the same overall objective for Burma
(Myanmar), namely the developing of open and political systems,
we have some differences on how to achieve this end," she said in
a statement to six-member ASEAN.

The U.S. stance contrasts with the ASEAN policy of
"constructive engagement", which included the presence at last
week's annual ASEAN ministerial talks of Foreign Minister Ohn
Gyaw.

He was invited as a guest of Thailand in a move that angered
human-rights groups and a number of Western countries.

In talks after the ASEAN meeting, the European Union,
Australia and Canada edged towards the ASEAN view that more could
be achieved in Yangon through constructive contact.

"Generally, they feel isolation is not the answer... I would
like to say unanimously but I dare not to, they feel that the
constructive engagement of ASEAN is the right answer," Thai
Foreign Ministry spokesman Suvidhya Simasakul told reporters on
Tuesday.

ASEAN, which comprises Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, said last week that it eventually
wanted Myanmar and the three Indochinese countries, Cambodia,
Laos and Vietnam, to join.

Most Western allies have differed with ASEAN on the best way
to encourage change in Myanmar since the military brutally
suppressed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 and subsequently
detained without trial dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Dialog

But this week, while deploring Myanmar's human-rights record
and continued political detentions, some Western countries were
reassessing their stand on the country.

Canada, while still waiting to see evidence of real commitment
to political reform, said it was not in favor of isolating the
regime.

"The new Canadian government believes in dialog," Foreign
Minister Andre Ouellet said.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said there was a
general recognition in Tuesday's ASEAN talks with dialog partners
that there had been some progress in Burma over the past couple
of years.

"That could probably be attributed in some ways to the policy
of hands-on dialog engagement and encouragement (from ASEAN)," he
told reporters while also stressing that none of this had gone
far enough.

But Washington stressed that its approach had not changed.

Spero, under secretary of state for economic, business and
agricultural affairs, quoted President Bill Clinton on the
conditions for building ties with Yangon.

"As President Clinton said, 'That process can begin only if
the regime enters into a substantive dialog with Aung San Suu Kyi
to resolve Burma's political impasse and to set it on a path to
successful national development with the free and full
participation of all its people'."

ASEAN's talks with its dialog partners, the United States,
Japan, Canada, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and the
European Union, were to wind up late yesterday.