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AFP-ASEAN support vital for Myanmar



Subject: AFP-ASEAN support vital for Myanmar democracy: Aung San Suu Kyi

ASEAN support vital for Myanmar democracy: Aung San Suu Kyi
BANGKOK, July 13 (AFP) - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
Tuesday called on ASEAN to harden its stance toward the junta in Yangon,
saying the bloc does not have a "clear conscience" over human rights.
The opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate accused the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of hiding behind concepts like "Asian
values" and "non-interference" to avoid taking on the junta.

"The democratisation process in Burma can be accelerated if the
international community -- (ASEAN) in particular -- increases pressure on
the military regime," she wrote in an article for Thailand's Nation daily.

"We believe that support from ASEAN ... is crucial to our quest for
democracy."

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide
victory in 1990 elections but the junta has refused to yield power.

Thousands of democracy supporters, including scores of NLD MPs, have been
harassed and imprisoned since the election.

Political dialogue between the junta and the NLD has failed amid bitter
acrimony, with Aung San Suu Kyi consistently barred from the talks.

But in a conciliatory tone Tuesday, she said dialogue should be "beneficial
to everybody, including the military regime."

"If ASEAN can persuade or put pressure on the present regime to convene the
parliament that was elected by the people, this could be the first step
towards democratisation," Aung San Suu Kyi wrote.

"While some countries are very active in helping hasten this protest, the
ASEAN countries are not.

"Indeed quite a few ASEAN governments -- though not the public -- justify
not helping by invoking the argument that democracy is a Western concept and
that Asian values must be upheld.

"To the contrary, democracy simply means good government rooted in
responsibility, transparency and accountability."

The military regime in Yangon, known as the State Peace and Development
Council, is widely accused of gross human rights abuses including rape and
forced labour.

The European Union (EU) and the United States have led Western sanctions
against the regime but ASEAN governments have repeatedly stuck to their
policy of non-interference in member countries' internal affairs.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent six years under house arrest from 1989 for her
political views, said ASEAN did not have a "clear conscience" and its
policies toward Myanmar had failed.

"This policy of non-interference is just an excuse for not helping. In this
day and age you cannot avoid interference in the matters of other
countries," she wrote.

"How can they say they will get involved in economic matters but not in
politics?"

"Foreign investment has provided Burma's military junta with legitimacy and
propped up the regime," she said, adding that Indonesia was the biggest
ASEAN investor in Myanmar.

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

Myanmar was admitted to the group in 1997, a move which has seriously
damaged the bloc's credibility with the West and effectively frozen
inter-bloc political contact with the EU.

So far this year the junta has hosted several top-level ASEAN functions,
including one on labour issues which went ahead despite the regime's widely
documented use of forced labour.

ASEAN ministers present at the meeting in May refused to condemn child
labour and did not formally discuss forced labour or several International
Labour Organisation resolutions censuring the Myanmar junta.