Myanmar resistance holds ASEAN issues hostage

MANILA (AP) - Southeast Asian nations, which have depended on consensus in dealing with regional issues, are finding that the need for unanimity can stymie change.

One country _ military-ruled Myanmar _ is holding up efforts to finalize a charter for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, establish a regional human rights commission and end the grouping's reliance on the consensus system, officials said Sunday as the region's foreign ministers opened their annual meeting.

The stalemate is ironic, considering that Myanmar is widely viewed as a major violator of human rights and that the proposal to allow voting on some key issues is aimed at preventing just what it is doing: a single nation using the need for general agreement to block or water down proposals it doesn't like.

When Myanmar joined ASEAN a decade ago _ over the objections of Western countries critical of its human rights record _ the country appeared to be taking the first steps toward democracy, making it a good candidate for membership as its neighbors sought a unified bloc that could hold its own economically and politically against groups like the European Union.

Since then, Myanmar has turned into ASEAN's black sheep, ignoring international outcry over the continued house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and producing little tangible progress in implementing a so-called roadmap to democracy that it says will lead to free elections.

"I sense there is some impatience, there is frustration" by some countries over Myanmar's lack of progress, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told a news conference Sunday night. "There should be reconciliation of all the various factions so that this will benefit not only the people of Myanmar, but our own credibility as ASEAN would be enhanced."

It's unlikely that ASEAN would admit Myanmar as a member today, given its recalcitrance, but expulsion also doesn't seem to be an option as other members hope that engaging the reclusive country is a better option than isolationism in nudging its generals toward lasting change.

Until that change comes, the rest of ASEAN has to try to find tangled ways to keep the negativity generated by Myanmar's regime to a minimum. Myanmar gave up its turn at ASEAN's chairmanship last year after a number of the group's dialogue partners, which include the United States and the European Union, said they would not attend any regional meetings there.

The EU has imposed economic and political sanctions against Myanmar, and its refusal to deal with the military-ruled nation held up the start of free-trade talks between the EU and ASEAN for more than two years.

"As far as Burma, or Myanmar, is concerned, we all see clearly that it's not very helpful what the government there is doing as far as ASEAN is concerned," Ambassador Axel Raimund Weishaupt of Germany said earlier this year as the EU urged Myanmar's partners in ASEAN to be firmer with the junta.

Walden Bello, a left-leaning University of the Philippines sociology professor, said other ASEAN members also have a long way to go to be fully democratic, pointing out that Thailand is still waiting for elections nearly a year after a military coup, while Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all have authoritarian governments.

The situation inside Myanmar has been a distraction at every ASEAN meeting since it cracked down on Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy after they won general elections. But the country has been able to use ASEAN's policy of consensus to fend off moves that could have led to further criticism and action.

Government-appointed advisers have said members that breach ASEAN's principles should have their rights and privileges suspended _ or even be expelled in extreme cases. But the group has been unable to codify such sanctions, largely due to Myanmar's resistance and ASEAN's founding principle of noninterference by members in each other's internal affairs.

In negotiations this past week, Myanmar blocked a proposal to create a regional human rights body under a landmark charter being drafted by ASEAN, even when a compromise was offered that would allow members to delay joining the commission, as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia would likely do. The proposal to have majority votes on major issues and statements also was blocked, again by Myanmar.

ASEAN's foreign ministers are to discuss Myanmar's efforts to democratize, according to a draft joint ministerial statement, which reserved a paragraph for the situation in the military-ruled nation. But the wording of the paragraph was unlikely to be strong with Myanmar pushing to water down the language.