Burma forgotten man at ASEAN meetin (r)

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Subject: Burma forgotten man at ASEAN meeting


Friday July 25 4:31 AM EDT 

Burma forgotten man at ASEAN meeting

By Bill Tarrant 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Reuter) - Burma has become the forgotten man at
ASEAN's annual
meeting now that the international spotlight has swung to Cambodia. 

``At the moment, Burma's sort of off the screen,'' said one U.S. diplomat
who is helping President
Bill Clinton's special envoy for Cambodia, Stephen Solarz, with his separate
mediation effort in
Phnom Penh. 

Burma was admitted along with Laos as the eighth and ninth members of the
Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a special ceremony on Wednesday before a
glittering assembly
of Malaysia's diplomatic community. 

Notable in his absence was British High Commissioner David Moss, who
boycotted the
ceremony. 

``Bearing in mind the current state of relations between the United Kingdom
and Burma, we
considered it would send a misleading signal to have the high commissioner
(ambassador) attend
this ceremony,'' a British High Commission spokesman said on Friday. 

Cambodian strongman Hun Sen's bloody putsch against First Prime Minister
Prince Norodom
Ranariddh earlier this month forced ASEAN to postpone the country's admission. 

Much of the discussion in the ASEAN meetings and on the sidelines has
concerned efforts to
mediate in the conflict. 

But Burma will become a major talking point at the ASEAN Regional Forum,
which brings the
ASEAN foreign ministers together with 11 other Western and Asian powers for
talks on Asian
political and security issues on Sunday. 

ASEAN Secretary-General Ajit Singh said on Friday problems had arisen with
the European
Union and the United States following Burma's admittance. 

``There are some technicalities we need to look at,'' he said, referring to
a cooperation agreement
between the ASEAN and the EU and whether it would be extended to Burma. 

Western nations had lobbied hard against Burma's admission saying it should
be isolated over its
human rights record and crackdown on a pro-democracy movement led by Nobel
peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi. 

But ASEAN contends that Burma, which shares borders with India, China and
fellow ASEAN
member Thailand, is strategically too important to isolate and is worried
about Beijing's influence
-- China is Burma's biggest arms supplier. 

ASEAN -- which now groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Vietnam,
Brunei, Burma and Laos -- insists its policy of ``constructive engagement''
can reform Burma's
military government from within the family. 

Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi referred to that in his speech
welcoming the two
new members this week. 

``At times it may be necessary for ASEAN member countries to be a mirror for
each other.
Gentle reminders from fellow ASEAN brothers should be accepted in the spirit
of maintaining the
unity and credibility of ASEAN,'' Abdullah said. 

But his gentle reminder to Burma's ruling generals during a visit to Rangoon
last month to start a
dialogue with Suu Kyi was firmly rejected. 

Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw made no mention of working with Suu Kyi's
National
League for Democracy, which won a 1990 general election later nullified by
the military. 

``Most of us in the region of Southeast Asia are nations who all possess a
chequered past of
colonial legacies, with similar experiences in our nation-building
endeavours,'' Ohn Gyaw said. 

ASEAN said it was also reluctant to put pressure on its neighbours because
that would contravene
a cardinal principle of the group -- to avoid interference in the internal
affairs of other members. 

That policy, formed in 1967 when Southeast Asia was a cauldron of
cross-border insurgencies
and deep ideological divisions, was seen as a cornerstone of the group's
thinking. 

It also recognised the vast differences in types of governments in the
region, which now range from
a military dictatorship in Burma, to communist Vietnam and Laos, an absolute
monarchy in Brunei
and various kinds of democracies in the other members. 

That policy has come under renewed scrutiny as ASEAN heads into the next
millennium. 

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has called on ASEAN to
practise ``constructive
intervention,'' citing Cambodia and Burma as examples. 

Burma's admission capped a three-decade effort by ASEAN to get Rangoon into
the group.
Burma in the 1970s was so isolationist it walked out of the Non-Aligned
Movement and twice
refused ASEAN invitations to join the group. 

ASEAN feared if it did not admit Burma now, Rangoon could travel down a new
isolationist road
and fall further into