Vietnam disagrees with ASEAN over Suu Kyi

Aug 14, 2009, 5:14 GMT

   Hanoi - Vietnam does not support calls by other Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states for Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, state media reported Friday.

   The state-run Viet Nam News said Vietnam had no criticism of Myanmar's decision Tuesday to place Suu Kyi under house arrest for the next 18 months, effectively barring her from elections scheduled for next year.

   'It is our view that the Aung San Suu Kyi trial is an internal affair of Myanmar,' Vietnamese government spokesman Le Dung stated on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

   On Wednesday, the Thai government called on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi immediately and allow her to participate in the elections, echoing statements by Thailand and other ASEAN member states at the group's regional forum last month.

   In contrast, Dung said Vietnam has always supported Myanmar and hopes it will continue to implement the 'roadmap to democracy' outlined by its government.

   Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997 and has proven a major embarrassment to the association ever since.

   The country's military leadership has notched up one of the world's worst human rights records, and its adamant refusal to free Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has inspired near universal outrage and condemnation.

   Despite the criticism, even from its close neighbours, Myanmar's ruling military junta appeared determined to push through with its so-called 'road map to democracy,' which is to include a general election in 2010, albeit one that promises to be neither free nor fair.

   A military-drafted constitution pushed through in 2008, also as part of the road map, has guaranteed the military would hold control over any elected government through a quorum of appointed senators.

   Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy party, which won the last polls held in 1990 but which has been denied power for the past 19 years. She is seen by the junta as the only political force capable of derailing its road map to 'discipline-flourishing democracy.'