U.S. to take up Myanmar issue at ASEAN forum

U.S. to take up Myanmar issue at ASEAN forum

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
plans to take up the "central issue" of Myanmar in talks with
Southeast Asian foreign ministers here next week, a top U.S.
official said yesterday.

A special assistant to President Bill Clinton, Sandra
Kristoff, warned at a forum by satellite with Asian journalists
that Myanmar's entry into ASEAN would affect the group's image,
Malaysia's Bernama news agency said.

Myanmar is to be inducted together with Laos into the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the eve of the
group's annual meeting starting July 24.

The meeting will be followed on July 27 by the ASEAN Regional
Forum (ARF) on security, with foreign ministers from the world's
leading military powers, as well as Myanmar, in attendance.

Myanmar is ruled by a military junta, known as the State Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which seized power in 1988
and is accused of widespread human rights violations against
political opponents.

Kristoff, interviewed by Malaysian, Japanese and New Zealand
journalists on the U.S. government's Worldnet Dialogue,
reiterated U.S. displeasure over ASEAN's decision to admit
Myanmar but said it "is not (a decision) for us to make."

"We hope the dialogue between the U.S. Secretary of State and
ASEAN ministers next week would discuss the central issue (of
Myanmar)," added the senior director of Asian affairs at the U.S.
National Security Council.

Bernama said Kristoff warned Myanmar's admission into the
grouping would put at risk ASEAN's image of being committed to
peace and stability, economic growth and more open societies.

The Myanmar junta has refused to honor the results of a 1990
general election won convincingly by pro-democracy forces led by
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

ASEAN's decision to postpone the admission of Cambodia
following the recent bloody power struggle in Phnom Penh has
grabbed the limelight and relegated the Myanmar issue to the
sidelines ahead of the group's meeting.

ASEAN had rejected western pressure to put off Myanmar's
membership, saying its style of "constructive engagement" would
work better in promoting reform than a policy of isolating the
junta.

On Cambodia, Kristoff reiterated U.S. support for ASEAN's
decision to defer the country's membership after Second Prime
Minister Hun Sen seized control while coalition partner First
Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh was on a visit to France.

Ranariddh, son of ailing King Sihanouk, has sought United
Nations and U.S. support for his bid to be reinstated, and ASEAN
countries have called on Hun Sen to restore the coalition.

"ASEAN has made the right decision after considering violence
in Cambodia and the possibility of its spillover to ASEAN
countries," Bernama quoted Kristoff as saying.