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Reuters AlertNet - ASEAN lawmakers want Myanmar membership stripped

ASEAN lawmakers want Myanmar membership stripped

28 Nov 2004 06:48:47 GMT

Source: Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Myanmar should not be allowed to take over as chairman of the ASEAN group of nations and its membership should be suspended due to the lack of progress towards democracy, lawmakers in the region said on Sunday. Myanmar's scheduled assumption of the chairmanship in 2006, "would be severely detrimental to the interests of ASEAN", parliamentarians of The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Malaysia. "Unless progress towards...democratic reforms in Myanmar is evident forthwith, we strongly urge that ASEAN bar Myanmar from serving as chairman of ASEAN and immediately review Myanmar's membership with a view of suspending Myanmar as a member," the statement said. The recommendations are not binding on the 10-member group, which holds a summit meeting in Vientiane, Laos, on Monday. Malaysia's member of parliament and lawyer Zaid Ibrahim said Southeast Asian government leaders should take the opportunity to speak out on Myanmar during the summit. "It is our view the governments have been soft for too long, you're not going to get anything from the military," he said. The lawmakers are also planning to visit Myanmar and seek a meeting with its ruling generals. With its policy of non-interference in internal national affairs, ASEAN has consistently ducked the issue of military rule in the former Burma, even though Yangon's reclusive generals are an increasing embarrassment. However, the purge last month of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who presented ASEAN with the seven-stage "roadmap" to democracy in 2003, has worried southeast Asian governments, who are staking reform hopes on a policy of "constructive engagement" with Yangon. Many of ASEAN's other members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Phillippines -- have criticised some of the junta's actions, especially the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar's military government said on Friday it had released thousands of people from jail but the mass release did not cover Suu Kyi or Tin Oo, the deputy leader of her National League for Democracy, who are both under house arrest. There is no word when they might be freed.

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