EBO
News Summary:
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1. ASEAN agrees to send high-level mission
to
2.
3. No one in ASEAN believes
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ASEAN agrees to send high-level
mission to Myanmar: Filipino FM
principle to send a high-level delegation to
national reconciliation process, the Filipino
foreign minister Blas Ople
said
Tuesday.
"In principal we are going to send a
high-level mission from ASEAN. It is a
proposal but everybody was supportive," Ople told reporters, adding that it
would likely take place at the ministerial
level.
No time-frame was given for the mission,
proposed by the Indonesian foreign
minister Hassan Wirayuda during two days of annual ministerial talks here,
which has yet to be approved by
The purpose of the mission would be
"to determine how ASEAN can help
political and economic stability."
ASEAN secretariat spokesman M.C. Abad told
reporters that
minister Win Aung would take the proposal back to
the country's leaders.
The ASEAN ministers on Tuesday called for
the early release of the Nobel
peace laureate, in an historic departure from
their steadfast policy of
refraining from interference in members' domestic
affairs.
Ople said such a delegation would be expected
to meet with both Aung San
Suu Kyi and the ruling generals, but would
not interfere with efforts by the
UN secretary-general's
special envoy to
Razali brokered talks between Aung San Suu Kyi
and the ruling junta aimed
at shifting the country towards democracy
beginning in October 2000 and has
made ten missions there in a bid to speed them
up.
"They will reinforce (his
efforts)," the minister said.
Asked whether such a delegation was
realistically possible, he responded:
"It is."
standing committee from
see the grouping focus more intently on
political and security issues.
-------------------------------
threatened
to cut off tens of millions of dollars in aid to
not
release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a spokesman said
Tuesday.
Hatsuhisa
Takashima, a press secretary for the Japanese foreign ministry,
said
the
popular leader detained late last month.
He said
gave
in
meetings.
"On this topic, I would like to call on the
the
current situation and initiate genuine efforts toward national
reconciliation and democracy and to take steps in becoming a responsible and
respected
member of the international community," she said.
Takashima said the foreign minister made it very clear that "if the
current
situation
continues, it will be very difficult for us to continue our aid
policy."
Takashima said
grants
and technical assistance, to
-------------------------------
No one in ASEAN believes Yangon over Aung San Suu Kyi: East Timor
own
protection, East Timorese Foreign Minister Ramos Horta
said Tuesday.
He said he had held intense discussions with the ministers in regards to
obtaining
her release and when asked how many ministers believed there was a
plot
to assassinate
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under what the junta has termed
"protective
custody"
in a military camp outside
supporters
on May 30.
"The story is totally unbelievable," Horta
said in regards to the junta's
claim.
"The fact is they (ASEAN ministers) are all demanding her release."
Foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN)
earlier
made an historic departure from a long-standing policy of
non-interference in members' internal affairs and called for Aung San Suu
Kyi's release.
Horta
said his country, attending the ASEAN meeting here as a guest and
potential
future member, always intended to speak out and publicly challenge
"I thought I'd be the odd man out in speaking out on
weighing
up the costs and benefits in speaking out. I am relieved that I am
not
alone and that ASEAN countries are breaking the taboo," he said.
Horta
praised Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda for breaking the
taboo
of non-interference and said ASEAN was acutely aware of
status
and that it is scheduled to chair the 10-member bloc in 2006.
"On this basis, this summit is ground breaking. It was unthinkable
a year
ago,"
he said in regards to speaking out on the conduct of a member state.
"They are serious that no later than 2006
pariah
status otherwise it will be severely embarrassing for everyone. It's
already
very embarrassing. ASEAN foreign ministers have been deeply upset by
the
setbacks in
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