Insurgents operating from Bangladesh, Myanmar
Document Actions
SE Asia losing patience with Myanmar’s military rulers
Malaysia on Wednesday signaled the region was close to washing its hands of Myanmar, saying the junta had snubbed efforts to push for democracy and urging the UN to take over the case.
AFP: 22 June, 2006
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Wednesday signaled the region was close to washing its hands of Myanmar, saying the junta had snubbed efforts to push for democracy and urging the UN to take over the case.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was being sidelined by the ruling generals, who are under mounting international criticism from within and outside the region.
“There is lack of confidence in Myanmar on Asean. I think the best thing is for Myanmar to be put under the purview of the UN Secretary-General [Kofi Annan],” Syed Hamid told AFP.
The military regime thumbed its nose at Syed Hamid in March when he traveled to Yangon as an Asean envoy to check on its claims it is shifting toward democracy.
Syed Hamid was denied access to detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, prompting him to say that regional leaders were “frustrated and disillusioned” with their intransigent neighbor.
Shortly afterward the junta allowed UN Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, and hold talks with the junta’s reclusive leader Gen. Than Shwe outside the new capital of Pyinmana.
Syed Hamid said the action demonstrated that Myanmar—which has become an international pariah for its reluctance to abandon military rule and improve its human-rights record—does not want Asean to play a bridging role.
The junta crushed prodemocracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the results of national elections won by the National League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent 10 of the past 17 years in detention at her lakeside home in Yangon.
Asean has put aside its policy of noninterference in members’ affairs in recent months to demand that Myanmar’s ruling generals introduce democratic reforms or risk bringing the entire region into disrepute.
Regional governments have begun openly expressing irritation with the Myanmar generals, and there have been rumblings that it should be ejected from the Asean bloc, which it joined in 1997.