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U.S. Slams Group's Burma Inclusion
- Subject: U.S. Slams Group's Burma Inclusion
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 20:49:00
U.S. Slams Group's Burma Inclusion
By Laura Myers
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 23, 1997; 8:14 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- On her way to meet leaders of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Secretary
of State
Madeleine Albright denounced the group's decision
to accept
Burma into its regional economic and security club.
``Burma may be inside ASEAN, but it will remain
outside the
Southeast Asian mainstreheadlines headlines
headlines heads
am,'' Albright said Wednesday. ``By admitting Burma
as a
member, ASEAN assumes a greater responsibility, for
Burma's
problems now become ASEAN's problems.'' ASEAN added
Burma and Laos to its group that includes Brunei,
Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
Cambodia was set to join this year, but ASEAN
suspended its
membership after Hun Sen ousted his co-prime
leader, Prince
Ranariddh Norodom, on July 5.
The United States had lobbied to keep Burma out of
ASEAN,
citing its huge heroin trade and repressive
military regime that
ignored the results of 1990 elections.
Democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi won the election, but instead of assuming
office, she
was put under house arrest by the military regime.
The house
arrest has since been lifted.
Albright said her No. 1 goal at a post-ASEAN
conference of
foreign ministers in Malaysia this week was
restoring a coalition
government in Cambodia.
She said she was pleased to hear fresh reports that
Hun Sen
would now accept a mediator role by ASEAN --
something he
had rejected just days ago -- but warned that he
still faces the
wrath of world leaders who have invested $3 billion in
rebuilding Cambodia.
``The United States will use its leverage and do
all we can in
partnership with others to see that Hun Sen's words are
translated into concrete actions,'' she said.
``The international community was right to invest
in peace in
Cambodia, and we are right to insist now that the
government
in Phnom Penh live up to its obligation to respect
democratic
principles,'' Albright said in a speech to the
Pacific Council and
Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
So far, the United States has refused to accept
anyone but
Ranariddh as Hun Sen's co-premier, although the
coup leader
has picked a member of the prince's royal party,
Foreign
Minister Ung Huot, to replace his foe.
America has suspended U.S. to Cambodia -- $41.8 million
annually -- for at least 30 days -- because of the
coup, holding
out the threat funding won't be restored unless Hun Sen
recognizes the 1991 Paris Peace accord which ended
civil war
in Cambodia.
That agreement led to the 1993 U.N.-sponsored elections
which put the royal party in power, although Hun
Sen was
given a leadership role in a shaky coalition
government.
In the past few days, ASEAN sent three foreign
ministers to
meet separately with Hun Sen and Ranariddh, but Hun Sen
rejected their advice. On Wednesday, however, ASEAN
reported a Hun Sen spokesman said he was now willing to
allow international mediation.
In Kuala Lumpur, Ung Huot met with former New York
Congressman Stephen Solarz, President Clinton's
envoy on the
crisis. Solarz declined to disclose details, but
said Ung Huot
``may be in a somewhat delicate situation himself.
I think we all
know who's calling the shots in Phnom Penh.''
U.S. officials remain skeptical about Hun Sen,
whose forces
have been accused of executing at least 40
followers of the
prince after the coup.
Nonetheless, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns
said the United States might accept a replacement for
Ranariddh if one if democratically chosen by the
Cambodia
parliament, set to vote on the issue July 28.
Now that ASEAN has allowed Burma into its club,
Albright
said she hoped Southeast Asian leaders would try to
encourage democratic reforms there.
The Clinton administration in April imposed a new
ban on U.S.
investment in Burma, but no other nations have
followed that
lead.
``As in Cambodia, democratic elections in Burma
were forcibly
overturned. Here, too, elected leaders have been
arrested,
persecuted and exiled,'' Albright said. ``And here,
too, the lack
of a fully legitimate government has created a
climate of
lawlessness that threatens stability.''