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Australia to take a stand on Burma. (r)



Subject: AUSTRALIA TO TAKE A STAND ON BURMA   THE AGE 28/7

 

                        Australia to take a stand on Burma

                        By LINDSAY MURDOCH,
                        international affairs correspondent,
                        Canberra

                        The Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, plans to
take his
                        toughest stand yet against Burma's military
dictators in a meeting
                        with a senior official of the junta in Kuala Lumpur
today.

                        Officials in Canberra said Mr Downer will tell
Burma's Foreign
                        Minister, Mr Ohn Gyaw, that the country's admission
this week
                        into the regional group, the Association of
South-East Asian
                        Nations, carries with it a responsibility to improve
its record on
                        human rights and personal freedoms. 

                        Burma and Laos officially joined ASEAN at its annual
meeting in
                        Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday while Cambodia's entry has
been
                        delayed because of this month's coup.

                        Mr Downer will insist at today's meeting that
Burma's junta,
                        which is officially called the State Law and Order
Restoration
                        Council, include representatives of the National
League for
                        Democracy run by the pro-democracy leader Ms Aung
San Suu
                        Kyi in a commission set up to prepare a new
constitution.

                        Mr Downer's approach has been to be diplomatic and
guarded
                        about raising human rights and other contentious
issues with
                        Asian countries.

                        But an official said yesterday Mr Downer planned to
send "a
                        very clear message to Burma that its behavior on
human rights is
                        unacceptable" and would tell Mr Ohn Gyaw that Ms Suu
Kyi,
                        whose party won 1991 elections but was not allowed
to take
                        office, "must play a central role in discussions
about how the
                        constitutional process develops".

                        Mr Downer insisted on seeing Mr Ohn Gyaw ahead of a
dinner
                        tonight of representatives of 21 countries attending
the ASEAN
                        Regional Forum which was set up three years ago as
the central
                        plank of Asia's security architecture.

                        The forum is scheduled to discuss Burma during its
one-day
                        meeting on Sunday. Officials say the US Secretary of
State, Ms
                        Madeleine Albright, will press ASEAN to play a
greater role in
                        Burma.