ASEAN leaders ignore Burma issues

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19861

Speaking to media inside Hanoi’s National Convention Center, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Burma was not discussed by the Asean heads of government at their retreat on Thursday.

After Asean foreign ministers discussed the Burma elections at length over a working dinner last night, the region’s heads of government focused on the Asean Summit’s “connectivity” theme, which involves enhancing communications infrastructure across the region.

Asked about whether Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader, would be released on Nov. 13, the date on which her house arrest is due to end, Surin said that representatives from the junta did not give any indication that this date would be amended.

Surin told media that a request was made last night to Nyan Win, the Burmese junta’s foreign minister, to allow foreign observation of the Nov. 7 election. The junta is considering a deal to allow current Asean member-state embassy and some international organization officials based in Burma to carry out poll observation.

However, no detail was provided about the extent of access the officials and diplomats would be given if the proposal goes ahead, or whether it would involve anything more than election observation. The deal would represent a compromise—Asean member-states previously asked that election observers be permitted to enter Burma to observe the elections.

Asean leaders convene again tonight for a dinner, and Surin speculated that Burma might emerge as a topic amid speculation that Philippine President Benigno Aquino III was preparing a forceful statement, by Asean standards, denouncing Burma’s election. Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo yesterday called the Nov. 7 vote “ a farce.”

Great power rivalries look set to dominate this weekend’s Asian summits, set inside the bleak, socialist-cliché trappings of Hanoi’s imposing National Convention Center.

Another round of US-China chest-thumping over a range of political, economic and security issues will likely push Burma to the background after tonight. Meanwhile, a still-simmering Sino-Japanese dispute over the arrest of a Chinese sea captain threatens to scupper a bilateral meeting between Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan.

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nice logo guys..asean should be a powerful force in the world but its not..if it was it would bring burma into line but its not about that..its about money and power..not about human rights..

401

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~ by seeker401 on October 31, 2010.