Washington regrets ASEAN decision to accept Myanmar
Washington regrets ASEAN decision to accept Myanmar
WASHINGTON (Agencies): The United States said Sunday it regretted the decision by Southeast Asian states to invite Myanmar to join their regional grouping.
The State Department acknowledged the make-up of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was an internal matter for member states to make.
"Nonetheless, we regret that ASEAN appears to have invited Myanmar to join its organization at this time," a department spokeswoman, Julie Reside, said.
Myanmar, along with Cambodia and Laos, won admission to the regional grouping Saturday at an ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
The Clinton administration has pressed for isolation of Myanmar's military junta until it stops repressing the pro- democratic opposition. The junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), blocked Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, from taking power after her party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections.
The State Department said it was counting on ASEAN members to urge SLORC to enter into a "productive dialog" with domestic democratic forces and cease actions that undermine regional stability.
"Our concerns about the SLORC's policies are well known," Reside said. "It has violated the rights of its own citizens and taken actions that undermine stability in the region by producing refugee flows and allowing Myanmar to remain a major source of narcotics."
She added that ASEAN shared these concerns "and, like the United States, wanted to see them addressed."
ASEAN is made up of Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam. The three newly invited states will formally become members in July.
Washington, citing "severe repression," imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar last month over the military government's rights record and treatment of the democracy activists. ASEAN has rejected Washington's stance and branded it as interference in the grouping's internal affairs.
Restriction
Meanwhile in Yangon, Myanmar's ruling junta ended its latest clampdown against supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and begun releasing those detained over the past two weeks.
Restrictions imposed on members of the opposition leader's National League for Democracy (NLD) were lifted Saturday following the military government's drive to prevent an NLD party congress last week, security sources said.
NLD sources here confirmed the junta had lifted the restrictions and started releasing supporters detained in the run-up to last week's attempted meeting.
The NLD has said up to 316 of its supporters were detained or confined to their homes ahead of the meeting called to mark the seventh anniversary of the NLD's landslide victory in abortive elections here.
About 1,200 supporters were invited to the two-day meeting held at Aung San Suu Kyi's Rangoon home, but only a handful were able to make the gathering.
The ruling SLORC has denied that any NLD members had been detained in the campaign.