ASEAN Backing for Suu Kyi 'Difficul

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ASEAN backing for Suu Kyi 'difficult': minister

 .c Kyodo News Service    

MANILA, July 23 (Kyodo) - By: Varunee Torsricharoen Malaysian Foreign Minister
Abdullah Badawi said Thursday it would be ''difficult'' for the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to back Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi's call for the ruling junta to recognize the results of the country's
1990 parliamentary elections. 

''It is very difficult for ASEAN to take that position,'' Abdullah told
reporters ahead of a working dinner with his counterparts from the eight other
ASEAN countries, including Myanmar. 

''I think there has to be some other way,'' he said without elaborating. 

Suu Kyi heads the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the 1990
elections by a landslide but was barred by the military regime from taking
power. 

Earlier this month Suu Kyi called on the ASEAN foreign ministers to support
her June demand for the convening of parliament by Aug. 21 in line with the
1990 election results. 

''We would very much like the ASEAN countries to give full support to our call
for the convening of parliament in the full understanding that this call was
not a confrontational move, but a positive step toward the democratization of
Burma (Myanmar),'' Suu Kyi said in a videotaped interview at her Yangon
residence. 

But Abdullah said voicing a position on the standoff between Suu Kyi and the
junta would be tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of a member
country. 

Malaysia and other countries have voiced strong misgivings about a Thai
proposal to adopt a more proactive ''flexible engagement'' policy instead of
clinging to the group's time-honored principle of noninterference in members'
domestic affairs. 

Myanmar has sharply criticized Thailand and the Philippines for urging the
junta and the NLD to show restraint as tension between the two sides escalates
in the wake of Suu Kyi's appeal last month. 

A senior Thai official said Myanmar's tense domestic situation will not be
discussed among the ASEAN ministers in talks Friday and Saturday, since Suu
Kyi did not formally convey her request for support to the group. 

But the official noted that some of the group's 10 dialogue partners, which
include vocal Myanmar critics such as the United States and the European
Union, might bring up the issue when joining the ASEAN ministers for talks
next week.