INDONESIA: ASEAN NATIONS DECIDE TO GRANT BURMA, LAOS AND CAMBODIA FULL MEMEBERSHIP

Record ID: 343155

  • Title: INDONESIA: ASEAN NATIONS DECIDE TO GRANT BURMA, LAOS AND CAMBODIA FULL MEMEBERSHIP
  • Date: 30th November 1996
  • Summary: JAKARTA, INDONESIA (NOVEMBER 30, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/SV NEWS CONFERENCE AT END OF ONE-DAY SUMMIT/ JOURNALISTS (3 SHOTS) 0.12 2. SV MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHATHIR MOHAMAD SAYING, "WE REJECT THE IDEA THAT THE WTO SHOULD BE LINKED WITH OTHER ISSUES, SO CALLED SOCIAL ISSUES LIKE HUMAN RIGHTS, LIKE WORKERS RI
  • Embargoed: 15th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • City:
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVACCWPZGPTOWM3R0YXRKAU4MP4P
  • Story Text: INTRO: Leaders of Southeast Asian nations have ended a meeting in Indonesia at which they defied Western pressure on human rights by pledging to include Burma in their regional grouping of ASEAN.

    Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders meeting in Indonesia on Saturday (November 30) said observer nations Burma, Laos and Cambodia will be granted full membership simultaneously but stopped short of saying when.

    The stand appeared to defy Western pressure to at least delay the move in the case of Burma because of the Rangoon military government's crackdown on a pro-democracy movement led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Ministers on the fringes of the summit said ASEAN was determined not to allow issues like trade and human rights be linked with trade and investment at the inaugural ministerial meeting of the world trade body in Singapore next month, as the United States and Norway have sought to do.

    "We reject the idea that the WTO (World Trade Organisation) should be linked with other issues, so called social issues like human rights, like workers rights and whatever else that may be brought in that we consider extraneous," Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the end of summit news conference on Saturday when asked whether human rights issues would surface at the upcoming WTO meeting.

    Mahathir conceded that other differences that threatened to surface at the Singapore meeting might not be as easily dealt with, such as the disputed South China Sea Spratly Islands to which China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim ownership.

    He said the issue could only be arbitrated by the international court if all parties agreed.

    "But it would seem that there will be parties which will not agree to such course of action, and therefore we cannot resort to the international court." General Than Shwe, head of Burma's military government, attended the meeting in which Burma's membership of ASEAN was a key discussion point.

    Notwithstanding some disquiet on the issue among some of its leaders in the past month, ASEAN has maintained that its policy of constructive engagement with Rangoon is the best way to achieve political reform and that isolating the nation could be counter-productive.

    Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw said Rangoon would not pressure for a deadline on its admission to ASEAN "We do not insist upon what time we have to be integrated. From the very beginning our script is to complement, to contribute and to share whatever we have to the stability of the region," he said.

    The foreign minister said each country's stability was essential to regional stability. "As far as Myanmar (Burma) is concerned we have now maintained peace and stability in our country," he said.

    "We have chartered our course in the right direction for economic development and beyond that of course, beyond the national barrier we would like to take part in the regional development."
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