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Australia's Burma stand attacked.
Australia's Burma stand attacked
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(06 June 96)
Thailand has attacked Australiafor attempting to push a tougher
stand against Burma's military regime at next month's meetings of the
seven-member Association of South-East Asian Nations.
The permanent secretary of the Thai Foreign Ministry, Mr Thep
Devakul, has warned Western governments not to try to make Burma's
membership of regional grouping conditional on democratic reforms.
Mr Thep said that both Australia and New Zealand were attempting
to set certain conditions on Burma's pending membership of the ASEAN
Regional Forum - the annual security dialogue between Asian governments,
which includes the US and Australia.
"The conditions are sought so Burma adopts a more lenient
attitude towards democratic groups with the country," said Mr Thep, who
has just returned from Canberra.
He said Western countries should take their own initiatives if
they wanted to press for political reform in Burma and not expect Asian
countries to take the lead. "ASEAN has its pride," he said.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, has
signalled that Australia will raise its concerns about the latest
political crackdown in Burma during the next regional forum meeting,
which follows the annual ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Jakarta next
month.
"It's an opportunity for a country like Australia to make the
points that we would like to make to the Burmese Government....about the
instability that is currently taking place," he said two weeks ago.
But Australian and New Zealand officials today denied attempts
were being made to set new condiitons on Burma's pending membership of
the regional forum.
A sopkeman for the Foreign Affairs Department in Canberra said
Australia had already indicated it "would not stand in the way" of an
emerging consensus on Burma joining the forum.
But Thailand's stand has serious rift over Burma in Jakarta
between ASEAN countries and their dialogue partner governments.
Both Japan and South Korea, who are also forum members have
stepped up their criticism of the Burmese regime after its renewed
threats against the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the arrest of
more than 260 of her supporters.
Ms Suu Kyi has denounced as a failure ASEAN's policy of
"constructive engagement", under which member countries have continued to
develop commercial links in the hope that the military will moderate its
political policies.
[By Mark Baker, South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok, Wednesday].
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