Reuters-Malaysia says ASEAN members

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Subject: Reuters-Malaysia says ASEAN members stand firm on EU meet 

Malaysia says ASEAN members stand firm on EU meet
11:34 a.m. Mar 16, 1999 Eastern
KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (Reuters) - Malaysia said on Tuesday that all nine
ASEAN countries had agreed not to attend this month's meeting with the
European Union in Berlin unless Myanmar is allowed to participate.

``If they (the EU) don't want to give any facilities to any ASEAN country to
attend the meeting, we will definitely not attend the meeting,'' the
national Bernama news agency quoted Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as
saying.

``This is our common stand and in that case there will not be any meeting of
foreign ministers between ASEAN and EU,'' he said.

A number of ASEAN members have said they would not attend the foreign
ministers' meeting unless the EU changes its mind on Myanmar.

EU sanctions against Myanmar, which joined the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, ban high level meetings with its officials
because of the EU's disapproval of that country's human rights record.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Philippines said on Sunday Thailand was still taking with the EU about
the format of the proposed meeting between the two blocs, indicating that it
might yet go ahead.