U.S. regrets ASEAN nod to Burma

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

U.S. regrets ASEAN nod to Burma 
 03:57 p.m Jun 01, 1997 Eastern 

 WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuter) - The United States said on
 Sunday it regretted the decision by Southeast Asian states to invite
 Burma to join their regional grouping. 

 The State Department acknowledged the makeup of the Association
 of Southeast Asian Nations was an internal matter for member states
 to make. 

 ``Nonetheless, we regret that ASEAN appears to have invited
 Burma to join its organisation at this time,'' a department
 spokeswoman, Julie Reside, said. 

 Burma, along with Cambodia and Laos, won admission to the
 regional grouping on Saturday at an ASEAN Foreign Ministers'
 meeting in Kuala Lumpur. 

 The Clinton administration has pressed for isolation of the military
 junta in Burma until it stops repressing the pro-democratic
 opposition. The junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council,
 blocked Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, from taking
 power after her party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections. 

 The State Department said it was counting on ASEAN members to
 urge Burma's military junta to enter into a ``productive dialogue''
 with domestic democratic forces and cease actions that undermine
 regional stability. 

 ``Our concerns about the SLORC's policies are well known,''
 Reside said. ``It has violated the rights of its own citizens and taken
 actions that undermine stability in the region by producing refugee
 flows and allowing Burma to remain a major source of narcotics.'' 

 She added that ASEAN shared these concerns ``and, like the United
 States, wanted to see them addressed.'' 

 ASEAN is made up of Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines,
 Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam. The three newly invited
 states will formally become members in July. 

 Washington, citing ``severe repression,'' early this month imposed
 economic sanctions on Burma over the military government's rights
 record and treatment of the democracy activists. ASEAN has
 rejected Washington's stance and branded it as interference in the
 grouping's internal affairs. ^REUTER@