ASEAN presses Myanmar on democracy plan

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20090301-191721/ASEAN-presses-Myanmar-on-democracy-plan

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 14:08:00 03/01/2009

Filed Under: Foreign affairs & international relations, Politics, Human Rights


HUA HIN -- Southeast Asian leaders urged Myanmar's junta to follow its so-called roadmap to democracy during an "open" discussion with the country's prime minister, Thailand's premier said Sunday.

The annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit was marred on Saturday when Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein blocked a rights activist from attending a meeting with the bloc's leaders.



Myanmar has long been a headache for ASEAN, which faces persistent criticism that it has failed to use its influence to persuade the military-ruled nation to introduce reform and free political prisoners.

"We had an open discussion on Myanmar where the prime minister of Myanmar briefed us on developments," Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, who holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, told a press conference.

"ASEAN leaders encouraged him to continue cooperation with the United Nations and to make sure that the roadmap continues according to plan," Abhisit said.

The ruling junta's roadmap calls for elections in 2010 but critics have dismissed the polls as a sham because Myanmar's Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention.

Abhisit said ASEAN leaders had asked Thein Sein to ensure that the roadmap "would be as inclusive as possible, which of course includes the release of political detainees and participation of political parties in elections."

ASEAN is to set up a new human rights body later this year under its new charter but rights groups say that it will be largely powerless to tackle violators such as Myanmar.

Officials revealed early details on the proposed body, which showed that it would have no investigative or punitive powers and would abide by ASEAN's controversial policy of non-intervention in domestic matters.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and has refused to recognise the results of elections in 1990 that Aung San Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide.