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ASEAN Gathers To Discuss Burma



30.5.97 

ASEAN Gathers To Discuss Burma 

By LAURINDA KEYS 
Associated Press Writer 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Critics of Burma's rulers protested today while 
ministers of a Southeast Asian economic bloc began arriving to consider final 
steps toward admitting the military regime. 

The seven-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations argues ``constructive 
engagement'' with Burma is more likely than sanctions to end that government's 
crackdown on pro-democracy activists led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. 

But Suu Kyi and human rights groups argue the opposite, saying the government 
has become even more repressive as its economic relations with Asian neighbors 
have improved. 

And Western nations have urged the economic organization to shun the 
military-ruled nation until it improves its human rights record. 

About 10 protesters stood in front of the Foreign Ministry for an hour 
carrying pictures of Suu Kyi as ASEAN foreign ministers begin arriving for 
their weekend meeting on membership for Burma, Laos and Cambodia. 

The protesters, carring signs calling the Burmese leaders ``murderers, 
betrayers (and) drug pushers,'' presented a petition asking ASEAN to postpone 
membership for Burma until conditions there improve. 

``By supporting the admission of Burma into ASEAN, the government is openly 
condoning the human rights abuses,'' said the petition from 22 human rights 
and civic groups. 

``What the people of Burma risk is the possibility that admission into ASEAN 
will make (the regime) even more obdurate and oppressive than ever,'' Suu Kyi 
said in smuggled videotape seen in Bangkok on Thursday. 

Suu Kyi, leader of a party that won 1990 elections which the Burmese regime 
has refused to honor, recorded the statement even as police ringed her home in 
Rangoon and held 300 of her supporters under house arrest. 

Diplomats say ASEAN, which already has given Burma observer status, hopes to 
admit the three countries at a July 24 meeting, thereby including all 10 
Southeast Asian nations. 

But that could be postponed until a December meeting, in part because Cambodia 
still must institute some legal changes required for membership. 

ASEAN was formed in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of communism in the 
region. Its formal goal is to promote economic and social cooperation. 

Suu Kyi, who has appealed in vain to ASEAN leaders to delay Burmese 
membership, said several of her party members were given long prison sentences 
the day after Burma was granted observer status last year. 

``If ASEAN is truly interested in constructive engagement, it should try to 
engage with both sides in Burma, with the (regime) as well as the democratic 
opposition,'' she said in the smuggled videotape. 

After nine years of ``constructive engagement,'' human rights organizations 
agree conditions in Burma have deteriorated. 

Amnesty International called 1996 the worst year for human rights in Burma's 
history. 

The Singapore Democratic Party issued a statement calling on ASEAN to refuse 
the Burmese regime membership because of its ``complete disregard of human 
decency.'' 

``If ASEAN wants progress to be made in Burma, then it cannot ignore Ms. Aung 
San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy, as the party is the 
legitimate government,'' the statement said. 

ASEAN includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, the 
Philippines and Vietnam.