ASEAN lawmakers want Myanmar suspended if Suu Kyi not freed in 12 months
- From: "Chim" <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Sep 2005 07:35:27 -0700
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Southeast Asian lawmakers said Monday
they will push their governments to suspend Myanmar from the ASEAN
regional bloc if it fails to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and other political prisoners within a year.
Legislators from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand want their governments to set a September 2006 deadline for
Myanmar, also known as Burma, to release Suu Kyi from house arrest,
said Teresa Kok, secretary of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on
Democracy in Myanmar.
"This is the minimum requirement we want from Myanmar," Kok said. The
decision was reached at a meeting of members of Parliament from the
five countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bangkok
last week.
The lawmakers believe ASEAN should strengthen efforts to push Myanmar
toward democracy because there has been "no sign of concrete steps
toward national reconciliation" since Myanmar announced in July it will
forgo the 2006 chair of ASEAN, Kok said.
Myanmar said the decision would allow it to focus on political reform
and reconciliation with Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. But
observers believe the move was designed to save ASEAN embarrassment and
a punishing boycott of its meetings by the United States and Europe,
the region's close trading partners.
The lawmakers' coalition had been one of several groups lobbying for
Myanmar to forgo its turn as chair of ASEAN.
They also plan to meet with officials from the EU and the U.N. over the
next few months to step up international pressure on Myanmar ahead of
the grouping's annual leadership summit in Kuala Lumpur in December,
Kok said.
The 10 ASEAN nations typically follow a policy of noninterference in
each other's domestic affairs and resistance to foreign pressure. But
Myanmar's neighbors have voiced hopes that the junta, which seized
power in 1988, will allow an elected government to take over.
ASEAN's other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Suu Kyi has spent more than half of the past 16 years in detention, and
her current time under house arrest began in May 2003. More than 1,000
political prisoners are also believed to be jailed in Myanmar.
The junta says it is drafting a new constitution leading to democratic
elections. It last held elections in 1990 but refused to hand over
power when Suu Kyi's party won.
09/26/05 03:47 EDT
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