Vietnam says ASEAN rejects Myanmar mediation affair
Vietnam says ASEAN rejects Myanmar mediation affair
HANOI (Agencies): Vietnam, the chair of ASEAN, said on Wednesday that it and "relevant" members had rejected a proposal for the regional group to mediate in Myanmar as it would represent interference in Yangon's internal affairs.
The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations agreed in July in Bangkok to form a "troika" of three of its members to try to help resolve regional political and security disputes.
Last month, the Thai newspaper The Nation quoted diplomats as saying that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had suggested the troika help mediate in Myanmar, where the ruling generals are locked in a confrontation with the pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Responding to a question, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said: "Vietnam has exchanged opinions with Myanmar and some relevant countries in the association on the basis of consensus and non- interference in each other's internal affairs and we recognize that the latest changes in Myanmar are Myanmar's internal affairs and external parties should not interfere."
Suu Kyi and seven senior NLD colleagues have been kept locked in their homes since Sept. 22, when she was forcibly removed from Yangon's main railway station after the authorities blocked her attempt to travel outside the city by rail.
Myanmar's treatment of the opposition has sparked world condemnation and thrown into doubt a planned meeting in Laos in December between ASEAN and European Union foreign ministers.
The idea of a troika has not been whole-heartedly supported by some ASEAN members who have long cherished the group's policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of members.
ASEAN contains two authoritarian communist states -- Vietnam and Laos -- as well as several countries with varying degrees of democracy. Several members, including Thailand, are concerned by the security implications of a Myanmar government at odds with much of its population.
Myanmar's official media have rejected mediation, pointing to ASEAN's principle of non-interference and saying that all issues between member countries should be solved by consensus.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, calling Suu Kyi a guest in Myanmar, a Myanmar government newspaper warned that she would be driven out with a "hundred lashes" if she abused her hosts.
The warning, delivered in a verse published in the state-owned Myanma Alin daily, is the latest in a litany of personal attacks on Suu Kyi who has repeatedly challenged the government's restrictions on her personal and political freedoms in recent weeks.
Apparently referring to her marriage to a British man, who died last year, the verse said Suu Kyi was a guest of the country.
The regime's actions have drawn international criticism, and this week Switzerland joined a list of Western nations in imposing sanctions on Myanmar.