Myanmar, North Korea feature at Asian summit

Myanmar elections, North Korean nuclear program, global crisis feature at Asian summit

(AP)  CHA-AM, Thailand (AP) - Southeast Asian leaders, having launched the region's first human rights watchdog, called Saturday on military-ruled Myanmar to conduct free and fair elections next year but refrained from criticizing one of the world's worst human rights offenders.

Activists said the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was taking a less critical line on Myanmar than in the past, and was ignoring growing demands to press for the release of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. They accused the nations of misinterpreting a new U.S. initiative of engaging Myanmar as an excuse for them to go soft on the junta.

A statement from the ASEAN leaders did not mention Suu Kyi, sparing the junta a public scolding. It only "underscored the importance of achieving national reconciliation and that the general elections to be held in Myanmar in 2010 must be conducted in a fair, free, inclusive and transparent manner in order to be credible to the international community."

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya denied there had been any shift on Myanmar, saying the position of ASEAN as well as the international community "remains firm, without any change, in terms of inclusiveness and the release of all the political prisoners."

He suggested that recent contacts between Suu Kyi and the junta, as well as U.S. moves to engage the military regime, were positive developments.

Human rights groups estimate that Myanmar's military government is holding about 2,000 political detainees, including Suu Kyi.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein held out the prospect, in vague terms, that his government could ease restrictions on Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention.

Kodama cited Thein Sein saying in a meeting of ASEAN heads of government with the leaders of Japan, China and India that "if Madame Aung San Suu Kyi maintains a good attitude, it is possible that the Myanmar authorities will relax the current measures on Madame Aung San Suu Kyi."

When the three-day regional summit opened Friday, the Southeast Asian bloc unveiled the region's first human rights commission, but it was immediately derided as toothless by activists who pointed out that its mandate did not extend to prosecution of violators like Myanmar, an ASEAN member. The activists were also angered by the exclusion of several members of civil society from the summit.

"ASEAN no longer feels under pressure from the United States and European Union and as a result is softening its approach," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

He said a recent policy shift by Washington from shunning the junta to seeking high-level dialogue has been misinterpreted by Southeast Asian nations as a move in tandem with their own, long-held policy of engagement.

The Obama administration is sending Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, to Myanmar in the next few weeks. But Washington says it won't lift its economic sanctions and continues to condemn the junta, calling for Suu Kyi's release.

"Basically the whole expectation is that the U.S. policy, which includes the engagement component, will somehow lead to some progress, (but) this will actually increase the complacency of the region," said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma. "What has been clear is the (junta) has been using this as a honeymoon to commit more ... crimes against humanity."

The ASEAN leaders' statement also urged North Korea to return to six-party talks aimed at halting Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, and stressed the need to continue domestic stimulus packages to ensure sustained recovery from the global economic crisis.

ASEAN's 10 member countries include Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. The meeting at a Thai beach resort also includes leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

The ASEAN bloc is also following up on China's $25 billion initiative to promote infrastructure development in Southeast Asia, Japan's program on the use of efficient energy, and a $100 million South Korean project to help the region respond to climate change, conference documents said.

The statement also welcomed what it called a "historic point in ASEAN-U.S. relations," a summit of the bloc and the United States scheduled for Nov. 15 in Singapore.