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.