ASEAN to seek India's help on Myanmar

Kuala Lumpur | March 31, 2006 10:42:31 AM IST

Net India 123

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) may look to India and China to help push Myanmar towards democracy, a top official said Thursday.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said action by India and China, both of whom hold strong economic relations with Myanmar, was necessary as there was "very little space" for ASEAN to act further to convince Myanmar to make democratic progress.

"We should ask China and India to be more persuasive," said Ong said.

His comments came amid growing frustration among ASEAN's 10 member nations of the grouping's apparent inability to push military-ruled Myanmar towards democracy.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who returned from Yangon on March 24 after a two-day visit, criticised Myanmar's military government for refusing to let him meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his fact-finding trip there.

"They gave me the run-around when I wanted to see Aung San Suu Kyi," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

He had requested to meet the detained Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi as well as other non-government people involved in the reconciliation and democratisation process, but had instead only met Prime Minister Gen Soe Win and Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

"It is a failure because I was not able to see the other stake holders," he stated.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Under pressure from the international community, ASEAN members at their annual meeting in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur in December reached an agreement with Myanmar to allow Syed Hamid to visit as an envoy to check on the progress of democracy in the country.

Syed Hamid is expected to submit a report on the trip at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Bali, Indonesia on April 17-18.

DPA

(IANS)