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.