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Albright blasts ASEAN decision to i
Subject: Albright blasts ASEAN decision to include Burma
Albright blasts ASEAN decision to include Burma
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(July 24, 1997, By Laura Myers, Associated Press)
LOS ANGELES (AP) Not mincing words, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright prepared to meet her counterparts in Southeast
Asia by criticizing them for welcoming Burma into their political
fold.
She called the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' acceptance
of Burma membership on Wednesday "another brake to the
region's progress.''
"Burma may be inside ASEAN, but it will remain outside the
Southeast Asian mainstream,'' Albright said before heading to
Malaysia today to meet this weekend with foreign ministers of the
economic and security club.
"By admitting Burma as a member, ASEAN assumes a greater
responsibility, for Burma's problems now become ASEAN's
problems,'' Albright said.
The United States, which in April imposed a ban on new U.S.
investment in Burma, had lobbied to keep Burma out of ASEAN,
citing its huge heroin trade and repressive military regime that
ignored the results of 1990 elections.
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the election, but instead
of assuming office, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was put under
house arrest by the military regime. The house arrest has since been
lifted.
The 30-year-old ASEAN, originally devised as a bulwark to
communist Indochina, invited Burma and Laos to join members
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam. Cambodia was set to join this year, but ASEAN
postponed its membership after Hun Sen ousted his co-prime
leader, Prince Ranariddh Norodom, on July 5.
The United States is counting on ASEAN to help reason with Hun
Sen to turn back the results of his coup. Albright said her No. 1 goal
at a post-ASEAN meetings and conference with foreign ministers in
Malaysia Saturday through Monday is restoring a coalition
government in Cambodia.
The secretary of state also plans several side meetings with her
diplomatic counterparts from China, Russia and Japan.
Albright said she was pleased to hear Hun Sen would now accept a
mediator role by ASEAN something he had rejected just days
ago and she noted that so-called outsider nations had a right to
protect the $3 billion Western governments have spent to prod
Cambodia toward democracy.
"The United States will use its leverage and do all we can in
partnership with others to see that Hun Sen's words are translated
into concrete actions,'' she said Wednesday to the Pacific Council
and Los Angeles World Affairs Council. "The international
community was right to invest in peace in Cambodia, and we are
right to insist now that the government in Phnom Penh live up to its
obligation to respect democratic principles.''
The United States has suspended economic aid to Cambodia
$41.8 million for at least 30 days because of the coup, saying
full funding won't be restored unless Hun Sen adheres to the 1991
Paris Peace accord that ended civil war in Cambodia. That
agreement led to the 1993 U.N.-sponsored elections that put the
royal party in power, although Hun Sen was given a co-leader role.
So far, ASEAN and the United States have refused to accept
anyone but Ranariddh as Hun Sen's co-premier, although the coup
leader picked a member of the royal party, Foreign Minister Ung
Huot, to replace his foe.
In Kuala Lumpur, Ung Huot met Wednesday with former New
York congressman Stephen Solarz, President Clinton's envoy on
the crisis. Solarz declined to disclose details, but said Ung Huot
"may be in a somewhat delicate situation himself. I think we all
know who's calling the shots in Phnom Penh.''
Solarz is to report his progress to Albright on Saturday. She's also
meeting with three ASEAN envoys who have met with both sides
too.
U.S. officials remain skeptical about Hun Sen, whose forces have
been accused of executing at least 40 followers of the prince after
the coup.
Nonetheless, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the
United States might accept a replacement for Ranariddh if one is
democratically chosen by the Cambodia National Assembly, set to
vote on Sunday.
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