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U.S. says military-ruled Myanmar a 'problem' for ASEAN in future
The United States said Thursday that Myanmar could become a problem for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the future if the values in the bloc's new charter failed to resolve issues in the reclusive, military-ruled country
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The United States said Thursday that Myanmar could become a problem for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the future if the values in the bloc's new charter failed to resolve issues in the reclusive, military-ruled country.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had pressed the regional organization, which many criticize for lacking any leverage over the regime, during her meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers here, and asked whether the other states in the region could push Myanmar, also known as Burma, toward democracy.
"I think if the problems are not ultimately resolved with Burma moving closer to the general values in the ASEAN charter, then you are really going to have problems with the organization," she said.
"The ASEAN Charter aspires to the rule of law, human rights, the development of more pluralistic political systems and integration into the international community. And Burma is out of step. Badly out of step."
Myanmar this week ratified the charter, which also seeks to set up a human rights body. ASEAN admitted Myanmar in 1997 in the hope that constructive engagement, the bloc's favorite term, might achieve what bouts of Western sanctions had not.
ASEAN was dealt another embarrassing blow in May when the junta, facing a natural disaster that left some 140,000 dead or missing, refused to admit international aid workers.
ASEAN made a move more than two weeks after the tragedy, leading a humanitarian mechanism with the junta and the United Nations.
"When you have a situation as you had with the cyclone where days and weeks go by with an international community sitting literally offshore, willing and ready to help, but the junta refusing to let people in need be helped, we wonder how can the regional community stand by and let that happen," said Rice.
While calling ASEAN's role in coordinating international assistance as useful, she said the situation "should never have happened in the first place".
"Now the question is, given the slight opening this has provided, is there a way to move Burma to a political track that would finally make something of what is right now a kind of mockery, which is this road to democracy that is going nowhere," she said.
"And would it be possible for the regional states and neighbors to press the regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi and allow real opposition?"
Myanmar says it will hold general elections in 2010, the first since 1990 when it denied Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party office despite victory. She has been under house arrest since then.
ASEAN stated Sunday during the annual meeting here it was deeply disappointed that Suu Kyi's detention had been extended and called for the release of all political prisoners.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said he hoped the ASEAN-led humanitarian operation after the cyclone would be a lesson for Myanmar that opening up and working with the international community did no harm.
"I hope this learning process will translate into the political process," he said.
Critics of ASEAN have said there is plenty ASEAN could do but just would not. Some leaders of the regime are thought to have bank accounts in Singapore. Thailand is by far the largest buyer of Myanmar's exports, mainly gas. It and Singapore are the reclusive country's second and third biggest trade partners behind China.
