US threatens to boycott ASEAN meetings in 2006
US threatens to boycott ASEAN meetings in 2006
Agencies, Washington/Vientiane
The United States has warned it might boycott ASEAN meetings when Myanmar takes over the chairmanship of the Southeast Asian grouping in 2006, unless the military-ruled state improves its human rights record.
"The U.S. has made clear that the situation in Burma has complicated our dealings with ASEAN," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday in a written statement using Myanmar's previous name.
He was responding to questions at a media briefing on U.S. policy when Myanmar takes over the helm of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006-2007.
The ASEAN chairman traditionally hosts a series of official and minister level meetings with the 10-member grouping's key trading partners, including the United States and the European Union.
The United States has condemned the Myanmar military junta's human rights abuses, particularly the continued detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and has imposed trade and investment sanctions against the impoverished nation.
The ASEAN chairmanship is rotated annually among members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
"The Secretary of State will have to decide whether it is appropriate to participate at senior levels in meetings in Burma, based on the situation that exists at the time in 2006-2007, while that country holds ASEAN's chairmanship," Boucher said.
The U.S. stand was announced just as ASEAN leaders ended annual talks in the Laotian capital Vientiane on Tuesday, with Myanmar's immediate neighbor Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urging Yangon to reform before it takes over the ASEAN leadership.
Boucher said that ASEAN should do more to push Myanmar to embrace democratic reforms.
"We think that more attention to the progress of democracy in Burma is appropriate from the nations of the region, and we have certainly been in touch with them in connection with the summit," he told the briefing.
Myanmar has been a lingering embarrassment for ASEAN ever since it joined the grouping in 1997. Just as the ASEAN leaders met this week, news emerged that Suu Kyi's house arrest has been extended for another year.
The move has been condemned by United Nations chief Kofi Annan and many governments, including in the United States, Britain and Germany.
Annan made his appeal on Tuesday as Myanmar's Asian neighbors issued similar calls at the ASEAN summit.
"The secretary-general reiterates his belief, which is shared by ASEAN and the countries of the region, that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention is not in the interest of the process of national reconciliation and democratization in Myanmar," chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.
"The secretary-general urges the Myanmar authorities to seize the momentum created by the recent announcements to release some 9,000 prisoners by releasing her, as well as all those detained for expressing their political beliefs, as soon as possible," Eckhard said.
Suu Kyi has been detained since May 2003 following a violent clash between her supporters and a pro-junta mob. It was the Nobel peace laureate's third period of house arrest since taking up the democracy struggle in 1988.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won 1990 elections but was never allowed to rule. The party's offices have also been shut down.
Meanwhile, sources told AP on Wednesday that Southeast Asian countries came close to issuing a critical statement on the Myanmar military government's treatment of detained pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi at their summit, but the plan was shot down by Thailand.
ASEAN's Senior officials, which includes Myanmar, drafted a statement expressing concern over the decision by the country's junta to extend Nobel laureate Suu Kyi's house arrest, said two diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.
They said the statement, which was to have been issued on Tuesday at the end of the annual summit of ASEAN leaders in the Laotian capital, also would have urged Myanmar's military regime to stick to its pledges to move toward democracy.
The planned statement, although stillborn, is a reflection of the deep frustration among Southeast Asian countries with Myanmar's junta, which has failed to fulfill any of its pledges to restore democracy in the country or to free Suu Kyi, who has been detained since last May.
The Myanmar statement was drafted by senior diplomats of ASEAN's 10 member countries for approval of their leaders on Tuesday. However, it was abandoned after Thai officials "expressed reservations," the diplomats said. As expected, Myanmar also opposed it.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said on Wednesday in Bangkok that no such statement was proposed to the ASEAN leaders.
Senior diplomats of Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore who initiated the move then made an alternative proposal -- each government would issue a separate statement criticizing Myanmar, but that plan was also not carried, the diplomats said.
At least one government -- the Philippines -- went as far as preparing a draft statement, a copy of which was seen by the AP. It used strong language in expressing concern about Suu Kyi's continued detention and the eroding credibility of ASEAN.
In keeping with ASEAN's noninterference policy, Myanmar's politics were not discussed in formal sessions during the summit in Laos, but have been raised in informal talks.