Myanmar demands right to sit at ASE

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar demands right to sit at ASEAN-EU meeting

MATTHEW PENNINGTON

AP, Chiangmai, 6 October 2000 Myanmar said Friday it has a right
to sit at an upcoming conference between Southeast Asian and
European foreign ministers despite EU protests of the crackdown
on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which admitted Myanmar
in 1997, had made it clear that all its ten members must be allowed to
join any dialogue with the European Union, said David Abel, a top
Myanmar official.

''If it's EU-ASEAN, why should Myanmar be left out?'' Abel told a news
conference on the sidelines of an annual meeting of ASEAN economic
ministers.

''There should be no discrimination,'' said Abel, who is a minister to the
office of the chief of Myanmar's ruling junta.

On Thursday, European Union's trade commissioner, Pascale Lamy,
told reporters in Bangkok that it was too early to say whether the meeting
due to take place in Vientiane, Laos, in December would
go ahead, amid EU concerns about the situation in Myanmar.

''If they (the EU) are not going to come to Vientiane, it's up to them,''
Abel said.

Suu Kyi, whose party won general elections in Myanmar in 1990 but
was never allowed to take power, has been kept under virtual house
arrest since Sept. 22 after she made her second bid in a
month to travel outside the Yangon on party business.

Dozens of supporters of her National League for Democracy have been
rounded up. NLD vice chairman Tin Oo is being detained at a state guest
house and other party leaders are confined to their homes without
diplomatic contact.

These developments have drawn a barrage of international criticism and
again led to a hardening of opinions in the EU, which had recently said
it didn't want the Myanmar issue to hold relations with ASEAN ''hostage.''