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Reuter: Thai minister rejects Suu K



Subject: Reuter: Thai minister rejects Suu Kyi's appeal for assistance

Asian Age


Thai minister rejects Suu Kyi's appeal for assistance


Bangkok: Thailand's deputy foreign minister has dismissed an appeal for
help from Burma's pro-democracy leader, saying there is no alternative to a
policy of friendship with Rangoon's ruling military. 

Burma's Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations earlier this week to launch an initiative to
encourage dialogue between her National League for Democracy and the generals.

Thai deputy foreign minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra responded in the Friday
edition of the Bangkok newspaper the Nation by saying the principle of
non-interference in the internal affairs of member states had been one of
the founding tenets of Asean.

"We believe that the principle...should be adapted to suit the changing
times and circumstances. But to abandon it is to tear Asean asunder," he
said. "The reality is that Asean cannot be a proactive promoter of changes
in the existing political arrangem
ent of any member country."

Mr Sukhumbhand added that even if Asean countries wished to act in such a
way, their capacity to do so was limited. "There is only a choice between
exclusion and engagement where (Burma) is concerned," he said.

"We reject exclusion because we believe that isolation will simply
reinforce the status quo, heighten whatever sensitivity to the outside
world there is, and increase the suffering of the common people."

He added, "As a fellow Asean member, (Burma) is a close friend and must be
encouraged to contribute to the cause of regional cooperation."

Ms Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate, said in a commentary published
in the Tuesday edition of the Nation Asean's Burma policy was an excuse for
not helping the democratic cause. Her NLD won Burma's last election in 1990
by a landslide but the genera
ls who seized power two years earlier by crushing a pro-democracy uprising
ignored the result and have tried to silence the party through a campaign
of arrests and intimidation. Ms Suu Kyi said she believed support from
Asean, which groups Burma with Thai
land, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam and
Cambodia.