Former UN chief urges ASEAN on Myanmar

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said Friday that Southeast Asian countries should pressure military-ruled Myanmar to improve its human rights record.

Annan said the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should not use their policy of mutual non-interference as "an excuse to stay out and not get involved."

Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997, has continually embarrassed the regional bloc by refusing to introduce democratic reforms and continuing to detain democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

But while the bloc has made noises about the rights record of the military-ruled nation, formerly known as Burma, it has largely kept to a long-standing policy of keeping out of the internal affairs of member states.

"ASEAN does have a policy of non-interference," Annan said during a two-day visit to Malaysia, another country in the bloc.

"But ASEAN member states also belong to the UN (and therefore) accept the responsbility to protect their citizens from gross violations of human rights and protect them from crimes against humanity," he said.

"There are certain crimes that we cannot say: it is somebody else's responsbility, they should resolve it. We should all feel compelled to act," he said.

The United States and the European Union earlier this year renewed sanctions first introduced about 10 years ago against Myanmar over rights violations.

But ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said last month that sanctions were not working and that the bloc would have to find another way to engage the country.