ASEAN summit divided on approach to Myanmar

Apr 8, 2010, 7:02 GMT

Hanoi - The 16th summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to open Thursday with the Myanmar elections scheduled for this year causing disagreements between the 10 member countries.

Before a working dinner of ASEAN foreign ministers Wednesday, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told the media he would raise Myanmar's elections at the summit.

'Questions about elections and how it would affect ASEAN will be raised,' Kasit said. 'There are still points we want to make. We want to see a free, fair and inclusive election, and the big question is whether that can be achieved and how.'

Myanmar's ruling military junta has promised to hold an as-yet-unscheduled general election some time this year as part of its seven-step so-called road map to democracy, but in March, it introduced election laws that would bar many top opposition figures from running, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

As a result, Suu Kyi's party - the National League for Democracy, which won Myanmar's last election in 1990 but has been denied power by the military ever since - has decided not to contest the election.

In Hanoi, Vietnamese officials hosting the ASEAN summit have said the topic of democracy and human rights in Myanmar is not on the scheduled agenda.

Asked earlier this week whether Vietnam would address Myanmar's elections at the summit, a Foreign Ministry official who asked to remain anonymous would only say his country would 'share Vietnam's election experience with Myanmar.'

In the run-up to the summit, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have been relatively open in their criticism of Myanmar. Member countries with non-democratic systems, such as Vietnam and Cambodia, have been largely unwilling to criticize their fellow ASEAN member, which has been under military rule since 1962.

On Wednesday, more than 100 lawmakers from the ASEAN Interparliamentary Assembly, a liaison group between legislatures, called on ASEAN leaders to sanction Myanmar if it failed to hold free and fair elections.

A petition signed by 105 members of parliament from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore said the leaders should 'urgently discuss' Myanmar's elections and should consider expelling the country if it ignores calls for democracy.

Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997, has been the association's albatross ever since.

Its junta's human rights abuses, failure to implement democratic reforms and refusal to free Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under detention, have been a constant embarrassment to ASEAN.

But ASEAN's long-held commitment to consensus decision-making and non-interference in one another's internal affairs have undermined past efforts to tackle Myanmar issues.

The assembly's petition was not reported in Vietnam's state-controlled media. The official Vietnam News reported only that the assembly members 'had shown their support for Vietnam.'

In recent months, Vietnam has strengthened its economic and diplomatic contacts with Myanmar.