A Failure of Engagement [washington

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Subject: A Failure of Engagement [washington Post]

A Failure of Engagement


Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A20 

TWO YEARS AGO the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) took in
Burma as a member. This was a major diplomatic triumph for Burma, whose
military rulers now call the country Myanmar, and helped ease the isolation
it earned after it trashed an incipient democracy in 1990. ASEAN's logic was
familiar: Engagement with the outside world would persuade Burma's dictators
to relax their repressive rule.

The verdict on this test case of the engagement theory thus far is clear:
The behavior of the thugs who run Burma has worsened, and so has life for
most Burmese. The latest testimony comes from Amnesty International, which
has issued three reports that detail the military regime's maltreatment of
farmers and other civilians of minority ethnic groups in Burma's
countryside. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes, and
many have been killed. Amnesty's interviews with refugees also confirmed
that thousands have been forced into dangerous labor, among them many
children.

Last month the International Labor Organization (ILO), a part of the United
Nations, condemned Burma in extraordinarily harsh terms and by an
overwhelming margin. Burma was essentially expelled from the ILO. The
organization found that more than 800,000 people have been pressed into
labor, which it described as "nothing but a contemporary form of slavery."

The person most qualified to speak of the success or failure of the
engagement strategy is Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the political party that
swept the 1990 elections, the results of which the regime refuses to honor.
She says repression of her party and arrests of its members have intensified
this year. She of all people does not favor the isolation of the Burmese
people, but she argues that any aid to Burma's generals only strengthens
their corrupt rule to the detriment of the population. ASEAN, many of whose
members are themselves struggling toward increased democracy, soon may have
to confront the failure of its engagement strategy in Burma.