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22nd July, 2008
SINGAPORE: Myanmar’s junta ratified a new ASEAN charter binding it to ideals of democracy and human rights Monday, as ministers urged the regime to release political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar pledged to abide by the EU-style charter at the annual meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, which was also dominated by an armed standoff on the Thailand-Cambodia border.
Under the charter, ASEAN members are committing to principles of democracy, good governance and human rights, and aim to establish a free-trade zone of more than 500 million people by 2015.
The bloc has been criticised for its policy of “constructive engagement” toward Myanmar’s secretive junta, which is under European Union and United States sanctions over its long record of human rights abuses.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win spoke however of the junta’s desire to create a “caring and sharing community.”
Ministers from the 10-nation ASEAN bloc earlier expressed “deep disappointment” over the junta’s one-year extension of Aung San Suu Kyi’s house detention and demanded that it free all political prisoners.
Analysts were sceptical about the regime’s intentions of observing the treaty, which contains no provisions for punishing rights violators.
“They’re not going to take the view that they have to change their approach,” said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.
The ministers’ strong language on political prisoners deviated from ASEAN’s usual practice of skirting controversy in the name of non-interference, but analysts said it did not signal a shift in policy toward Myanmar’s generals.
The meetings will culminate in a gathering on Thursday of the 27-nation ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia’s top security and political grouping which includes the United States, China and the European Union.
A highlight is expected to be an informal meeting on the sidelines between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.
Rice has no plans for bilateral talks with Pak, but will meet him for the first time at an informal gathering of the diplomats of the six countries negotiating Pyongyang’s denuclearisation.
Myanmar’s treatment of its democratic opposition is a perennial embarrassment for ASEAN, comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest, with the most recent spell beginning in May 2003.
Asked whether the democracy icon would be freed within months under a technical deadline set in Myanmar law, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said: “That’s our hope.”
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