Rights groups urge Asean to include Burma in summit agenda

Alarmed with reports that Burma, will likely escape strong pressure to
implement democratic reforms when the ASEAN holds its annual summit in
Cebu this week, rights groups Free Burma Coalition-Philippines and the
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) today urged the regional
bloc to include Burma in the agenda of the 12th Asean Summit.

 

The Philippines will be hosting the 12th Asean Summit from January
10-13 which was postponed last December reportedly due to a typhoon. The
summit plans to forge new bilateral agreements between states and
strengthen cooperation inside Asean. Asean is composed of 10-member
countries that include Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar),
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.

 

FBC-Phils and IID said that the region should exhaust all necessary
avenues to compel Burma to reform as the issue has now reached the
agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) because of Burma's
deteriorating human rights record.

 

The groups said that there are reports saying that Asean ministers
indicated that they will not raise the issue of Burma during the summit
and that the Asean will just let the United Nations handle the issue.

 

Gus Miclat, IID executive director and FBC-Phils convenor said, "What a
way to justify its inability to castigate its rogue member. If the Asean
decides to keep quiet on the issue of Burma during the summit, its
silence would mean protecting Burma again and it may jeopardize the
current efforts of the UNSC to bring reforms inside that country. If
that happens, Asean should prepare itself to face more protests."

 

"The situation shows that it is no longer possible, by any means, for
the Asean to defend Burma especially now that the world is watching more
closely what steps the security council will take. We suggest to Asean
that instead of keeping mum on the Burma issue, it should echo the
resolution of the council during the summit and come up with a clear
time-table for reforms in Burma," Miclat added.

 

LET US NOT BE TAKEN FOR A RIDE

 

IID and FBC said that the Burmese regime will also give a briefing on
progress made toward implementing its roadmap to democracy during the
summit. The groups however said that they expect the military junta to
fabricate lies on the real status of the roadmap.

 

"First of all, we don't think there is an iota of progress on the
implementation of the roadmap to democracy which for us is nothing but
an empty slogan designed to again fool the international community.
Besides, how could we expect an utterly undemocratic military junta,
unelected and unwanted, to lecture us about democracy?" Miclat stressed.

 

"Asean should not let itself be taken for a ride. It is playing a
fool's game if it would believe that junta's roadmap to democracy could
show some results. But if the Asean would find some entertainment
listening to the report of the junta during the summit, then Asean is
fooling not just the peoples of Burma but more so it is fooling itself,"
Miclat argued.

 

"Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands of political prisoners are still
languishing in Burmese jails whose sole crime is to defend democracy,
hundreds of women and girls are being raped on a regular basis, people
suffering from forced labor and Burma now produces millions of drug
addicts because of its opium trade—now, could the Asean afford to just
sit back and relax in Cebu while these crimes continue to happen?,"
Miclat concluded.