Asean Summit to Hear Proposal on Mediator Role in Burma

By Clive Parker
Irrawaddy Online: 06 December, 2006

The head speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives, Jose Claveria de Venecia, is expected to propose to the Asean Summit next week that Asean act as mediator between the Burmese military and the opposition National League for Democracy.

Venecia, the fourth most senior government official in Manila and a close confidant of Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, will call for the move after he was invited to speak as part of the official schedule of the summit in Cebu, the Philippines, starting on Sunday. No other details of the proposal are currently available.

The Irrawaddy understands that a potential role for Asean in Burma’s political impasse has already been suggested to the regime in private. Venecia’s forthcoming speech would be the first time it has been made officially in the presence of all members of the regional bloc. The proposal would also represent the most explicit public comment on Burma yet at an Asean Summit, a forum that has traditionally seen such discussion limited to the sidelines.

News that the Philippines plans to address Burma as the current Asean president comes as the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus on Wednesday ended a conference in Manila aimed at keeping the issue high on the agenda of the forthcoming summit.

Members of Parliament from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma held meetings with Venecia, the Philippines Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo and other Philippine officials during the three-day event.

Sann Aung of the NCGUB said that Romulo expressed determination to continue working on Burma and engaging with the regime to promote change. Along with other NCGUB delegates present, Sann Aung warned Venecia that all efforts to promote change in Burma had so far failed and that change could “only happen with a UN Security Council resolution.”

Roshan Jason, a spokesperson for the AIPMC, said that overall, meetings with the Philippines political establishment had been productive.

“It is encouraging that you have people close to the [Asean] leaders that are keen on raising the [Burma] issue, solving the issue and highlighting it,” he said. “But my fear is always in Asean summits—it being a very diplomatic event—that the leaders will be cautious.”

Jason noted though that Asean momentum on the Burma issue “is at a point that it was not at before”—in September, Cambodia became the sixth member of the bloc to set up an inter-parliamentary caucus on Burma comprising MPs from different political parties, despite threats from the Burmese embassy in Phnom Penh that the move would damage relations between the two countries. Excluding Burma, there are now twice as many countries within Asean that have embraced the AIPMC than those that have not—Vietnam, Laos and Brunei.

Meanwhile, the Philippines in a government statement on Wednesday announced that the purpose-built US $10-million International Convention Center in Cebu was ready to host the summit, just four days before delegates are scheduled to arrive.

The Philippines began construction in April after learning at short notice that it would take over the rotating presidency of Asean in place of Burma, which forfeited its turn due to international pressure over its human rights record.