Asean urged to suspend Myanmar
No to the junta: Myanmar activists shout anti-junta slogans during protests in Bangkok, Thailand in this October 24 file photo. Myanmar dissidents have called on Asean to suspend Myanmar's membership in the grouping. Picture: EPA
Friday, November 2, 2007
MYANMAR dissidents yesterday urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to suspend Myanmar's membership if its leadership continues to ignore international calls for launching a meaningful national reconciliation process.
Leaders of the 88 Generation Students remnant dissidents from the 1988 anti-military movement in Myanmar issued a letter to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong and Foreign Minister George Yeo urging Asean to take steps to increase pressure on Myanmar's military to start a political dialogue with opposition forces.
Singapore is the current chairman of Asean, and will host Asean's annual summit and preparatory talks on November 17-23. Myanmar, also known as Burma, joined Asean in 1997 and has proven a growing embarrassment for the regional grouping.
Even Asean, which has generally maintained a stance of non-interference with one another's internal affairs, was forced to denounce Myanmar's crackdown on peaceful monk-led demonstrations on September 26-27, that outraged world opinion.
But the 88 Generation Students group said Asean needs to do more to bring Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta styles itself, to the negotiating table with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other opponents to the regime.
The 88 Generation group, that has lost 40 of its members to arrests between August and September, called on Asean to "consider suspending the SPDC membership in Asean if it continues to ignore the requests of the international community."
Asean includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
It also called on Asean to reject SPDC's constitution-drafting process, to back the efforts of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and to stop selling weapons and intelligence technology to the regime.
DPA
Leaders of the 88 Generation Students remnant dissidents from the 1988 anti-military movement in Myanmar issued a letter to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong and Foreign Minister George Yeo urging Asean to take steps to increase pressure on Myanmar's military to start a political dialogue with opposition forces.
Singapore is the current chairman of Asean, and will host Asean's annual summit and preparatory talks on November 17-23. Myanmar, also known as Burma, joined Asean in 1997 and has proven a growing embarrassment for the regional grouping.
Even Asean, which has generally maintained a stance of non-interference with one another's internal affairs, was forced to denounce Myanmar's crackdown on peaceful monk-led demonstrations on September 26-27, that outraged world opinion.
But the 88 Generation Students group said Asean needs to do more to bring Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta styles itself, to the negotiating table with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other opponents to the regime.
The 88 Generation group, that has lost 40 of its members to arrests between August and September, called on Asean to "consider suspending the SPDC membership in Asean if it continues to ignore the requests of the international community."
Asean includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
It also called on Asean to reject SPDC's constitution-drafting process, to back the efforts of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and to stop selling weapons and intelligence technology to the regime.
DPA
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