INDONESIA: MYANMAR UNDERSCORES REFUSAL TO DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS AT UPCOMING MEETING OF ASIAN, AFRICAN LEADERS

Record ID: 647455

  • Title: INDONESIA: MYANMAR UNDERSCORES REFUSAL TO DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS AT UPCOMING MEETING OF ASIAN, AFRICAN LEADERS
  • Date: 21st April 2005
  • Summary: (BN04) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (APRIL 21, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF INDONESIA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING 0.06 2. SLV MYANMAR FOREIGN MINISTER NYAN WIN ARRIVING 0.26 3. SLV/SV OF MEETING BETWEEN NYAN WIN AND INDONESIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER HASSAN WIRAJUDA (3 SHOTS) 0.37 4. MCU CAMERAMAN 0.40 5. SLV NYAN WIN WALKING OUT FROM BUILDING 0.47 6. MCU (English) NYAN WIN SAYING: "This is our own decision. I have no comment to say" 1.00 7. SV NYAN WIN ENTERING CAR 1.07 8. SV CONVOY LEAVING 1.13 9. SLV FOREIGN MINISTER FROM GUINEA ARRIVING FOR COURTESY CALL WITH WIRAJUDA 1.24 10. MCU PHOTOGRAPHER 1.28 11. SLV FOREIGN MINISTER FROM GAMBIA ARRIVING 1.38 12. SV JOURNALISTS 1.40 13. SV THAI FOREIGN MINISTER KANTATHI SUPHAMONGKON WALKING OUT WITH WIRAJUDA AFTER MEETING 1.49 14. MCU (English) SUPHAMONGKON SAYING: "Myanmar has emphasised the fact that they are moving ahead with national reconciliation as well as the process of democracy. Also they emphasised that they feel very strongly that ASEAN unity comes first and the interest of ASEAN comes first so they will not be an obstacle to the ASEAN unity" 2.18 15. SV SUPHAMONGKON ENTERING CAR 2.28 16. SLV CONVOY LEAVING 2.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA,INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4BUXEMVIN100J0LNQK1PY7R8
  • Story Text: Myanmar underscores refusal to discuss human rights
    at upcoming meeting of Asian, African leaders.





    Myanmar, under renewed pressure over its human
    rights record, said on Thursday (April 21, 2005) it would not
    discuss democratic reforms at a meeting of Asian and
    African leaders in Indonesia, to be attended by the junta's
    top general.

    Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the military-ruled
    Southeast Asian nation would also not be pressured on
    whether it would take the leadership of the region's main
    political grouping next year.

    "This is our own decision," he told reporters after
    meeting Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda.

    Myanmar has faced growing pressure not to chair the
    10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in
    2006 after others in the grouping said they were
    increasingly frustrated by Yangon's slow pace of democratic
    reform and its treatment of political prisoners.

    ASEAN foreign ministers sidestepped the issue at a
    gathering in the Philippines this month by postponing a
    decision on whether Myanmar should chair the group.

    The United States and Europe have threatened not to
    attend any ASEAN meetings hosted by Myanmar. Washington
    has also said it might withhold funding to several
    development projects in the region, particularly in poorer
    Southeast Asian nations.

    Europe and the United States have shunned Myanmar and
    slapped sanctions on Yangon since the military government's
    latest detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in May
    2003.

    Myanmar's hardline leader, Senior General Than Shwe, is
    due to arrive in Jakarta on Thursday for the inter-regional
    Asia-Africa summit.

    Analysts and diplomats in Yangon say Than Shwe is expected to seek
    bilateral meetings with ASEAN counterparts
    on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the issue of the
    chairmanship.

    The grouping's rotating chairmanship is based on
    alphabetical order. Laos currently chairs the group.

    Singapore and several other ASEAN members have shown
    signs of impatience with Yangon's slow reform progress, in
    a rare breach of the group's long-held principle of
    non-interference in members' internal affairs.

    But Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon, who
    also met Wirajuda on Thursday, said ASEAN had been working
    hard to convey the concerns of the world to Myanmar and
    that the country is putting ASEAN's interests first.

    "Myanmar has emphasised the fact that they are moving
    ahead with national reconciliation as well as the process
    of democracy. Also they emphasised that they feel very
    strongly that ASEAN unity comes first and the interest of
    ASEAN comes first so they will not be an obstacle to the
    ASEAN unity," said
    Suphamongkhon.

    Yangon has promised to bring the country back to
    democracy through a seven-stage roadmap laid out in 2003 by
    then prime
    minister Khin Nyunt, who was purged last October. ASEAN
    comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
    Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


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