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Burma faces ARF pressure on rights. (r)
Burma faces ARF pressure on rights
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ASEAN Regional Forum members yesterday expressed strong concerns
about political developments in Burma, stressing the need for Rangoon to
accelerate progress towards the creation of a more democratic political
system.
At the opening of the one-day ARF meeting yesterday, the United
States Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, attacked the military
government in Rangoon and urged the forum to consider the impact of
conditions in Burma on the region.
"The (ruling) SLORC's refusal to heed the desire of a majority of
the Burmese people for a transition to democratic rule and its increased
harassment of the democratic opposition not only violates basic unversal
human rights but raise the chance of instability, bloodshed and migration
within Burma and across its borders," Mr Christopher said.
"The steady deterioration of the rule of laws has increased the
threat that Burma's burgeoning drug trade poses to citizens from Bangkok
to Berlin, and Shanghai to San Francisco."
Mr Christopher said it was particularly important, now that Burma
was a member of the ARF and building ties with the Association of
South-East Asia Nations, that the process of reconciliation in Burma
moved forward.
The 21-member ARF wound up its third annual meeting yesterday,
holding two closed sessions without a formal agenda. As well as
discussing Burma, the forum discussed a range of security issues
including developments on the Korean peninsula and the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty negotiations at its first closed session
yesterday morning.
Official said a final ARF communique was expected to call for an
early conclusion to negotiations on the CTBT and further progress on an
international ban on landmines.
At an informal dinner of ARF foreign ministers on Monday evening
- before yesterday's admission of India and Burma to the grouping - the
chairman of the ARF, Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, was
asked to convey the concerns of ARF members to his Burmese counterpart,
Mr Ohn Gyaw, which he did prior to yesterday's opening session.
Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, said
yesterday ARF members attending the dinner, including a number of ASEAN
countries, had expressed concern about the situation in Burma and the
need to promote political reform.
Mr Downer said that ASEAN countries, notwithstanding their policy
of constructive engagement on Burma, had shown real concern about Burma.
"They clearly support the views of non-ASEAN participants in the
forum that there should be moves towards establishing a democratic
constitution in Burma," he said.
Mr Downer said there was a "broad view" that the processs of
democratisation needed to "move forward quickly" in Burma. Australia, the
US, the European Union and other ARF members had again urged the
Government in Rangoon to open a dialogue with the opposition leader, Ms
Aung San Suu Kyi.
At yesterday's opening session the Burmese Foreign Minister, Mr
Ohn Gyaw, again defended his Government, sayinf Rangoon was moving
towards a more democratic constitution. He told the ARF that intention of
hanging on to power indefinitely and denied that Rangoon was holding any
political detainees.
Opening the ARF proceddings, Mr Alatas cautioned against
complacency in South-East Asia, saying the region was "by no means free
of tension and the anxiety of potential conflict".
"We still have to live with actual problems and potential
security challenges, including unresolved territorial disputes and
overlapping claims to sovereignty," Mr Atalas said in a refernce to the
defferences Indonesia and a number of other ASEAN nations have with China
over territorial boundaries in the South China Sea.
This week a number of ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to
voice their concerns over Chinese claims, made public in May, defining
their territorial boundaries around the Parcel Islands which are also
expected to challenge Beijing's view of how internation law affects
sovereignty in the South China Sea.
Non-ASEAN ARF members led by the US and Japan are also expected
to take up the South China Sea issue in bilateral meetings with the
Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen. Washington has said it would
oppose any claim inconsistent with the United Nations Law of the Sea
Convention.
[ By Patrick Walters, Jakarta correspondent, 24 July 1996].
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