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Australia's Burma stand attacked.




	
		Australia's Burma stand attacked
		********************************

			 (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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