INDIAN NEWS (r)

[shar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

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       ASEAN SPEEDS UP EXPANSION IN DEFIANCE OF WEST
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By  V. Jayanth KUALA LUMPUR,  June 1. The Foreign Secretary
(Minister)  of the Philippines,   Mr.  Domingo Stazon,  has
perfectly  summed up Asean's rationale  for speeding up the
entry  of Cambodia,  Laos and Myanmar into its fold in just
two months from now.

After  the  special  meeting of  the  Association's Foreign
Ministers here yesterday, he told journalists, "In this way
we  can help these countries.  We have political,  economic
and  security  interests to  safeguard  in the  long term".

That  about sums  up the  compulsions of  bringing in these
three  countries in July  instead of waiting  till at least
December  to realise  the founders' vision  of an Asean-10.

Strange  as it may  seem,  Laos and  Cambodia complete five
years as Observers in July, when compared to Myanmar, which
was  granted  that status  only in  July  1996 at  the last
meeting  in Jakarta.  To be  given full membership within a
year  for Myanmar,  despite  the wave of  protests from the
West, from the Opposition pro-democracy movement in Myanmar
and  from the  Burma Solidarity  Group which  is now active
Asean-wide,    gives  an  idea  of  how  critical  and  yet
controversial yesterday's decision is.

Myanmar's reaction was on expected lines. A junta spokesman
was  quoted as saying "Myanmar has placed confidence in the
wisdom  of  the  leaders of  Asean  member-nations  for the
acceptance   of  Myanmar,   Cambodia   and  Laos  into  the
prestigious association of the region. the association's of
the  region.  The association's dream of becoming a 100 per
cent  regional organization will soon  become a reality and
we  all  shall harmoniously  work  together to  develop our
region with much cooperation, coordination and
understanding of each other".

Asean  officials provided some  background to the thinking.
they said Laos could be the weakest economy in the lot, but
posed  the least problems both  politically and in terms of
preparation.   Cambodia  faced  the most  problems  and its
economic  and  political  crises could  take  some  time to
resolve.   In  the  case  of  Myanmar,  the  criticism  was
basically  from the West and the pro-democracy movement led
by   Ms.  Aung  San  Suu  Kyi.  Economically,  Myanmar  was
considered the "most prepared".

According  to senior Malaysian  officials,  "The overriding
concern  among the Ministers was  to make Asean's policy of
constructive   engagement  succeed.    They  came   to  the
conclusion  that a  delay in  the admission  till December,
even  for the sake of the  West or to provide Cambodia some
time to amend its rules to fall in line with the Asean Free
Trade   Area  (Afta)  requirements,   will  not  serve  any
purpose."

More  than Myanmar,  the urgency of admission has been felt
more  in the case of Cambodia. As its Foreign Minister, Mr.
Ung Huot, has said

>From  the Asean  point of  view,  the  two ruling coalition
partners  in  Phnom Penh  Funcinpec and  Cambodian People's
Party  (CPP)  are  governance.  The  latest  report  of the
alleged  assassination attempt on the co-Premier,  Mr.  Hun
Sen, and the earlier controversy over the largescale import
of  arms  and missiles  by  First Premier,   Prince Norodom
Ranariddh,   without the knowledge of either the Cabinet or
his  co-Premier,  have create fears and reservations in the
region.

                            The Hindu, Monday, June 2, 1997 
    News and Information Bureau, All Burma Students League.

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