BurmaNet News March 5-7, 2005

[Editor]

March 5-7, 2005 Issue # 2669

INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar to introduce plan to fight money laundering

DRUGS
DVB via BBC: Burmese Wa groups says region to be drug-free by June

REGIONAL
AFP: ASEAN worried over pace of democratic reforms in Myanmar: Singapore FM
Thai Press Reports: Asean parliamentarians urge Myanmar to become democratic
DVB: East Timor leaders demand immediate release of Burma's Suu Kyi
Xinhua: First batch of Myanmar workers re-issued with ID cards in Thailand
AFP: UN body urges Malaysia to free Aceh, Myanmar migrants detained in
crackdown
AP: Red Cross officials allocate funds for tsunami-ravaged countries

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Victims of a stalled revolution
Nation: Can Asean parliamentarians deliver on Burma?

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 6, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to introduce plan to fight money laundering

Yangon: Myanmar will introduce a plan to fight money laundering in the
country and the draft of the plan be finalized by the end of this month,
the local Myanmar Times reported Sunday.

Once the plan is approved by the Central Control Board, it will be
submitted in May to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
which had listed Myanmar as among non-cooperative countries and
territories in dealing with money laundering, a high-ranking police
official was quoted as saying.

The FATF move partly hindered Myanmar's chance to obtain aid from
international financial institutions, Police Colonel Sit Aye said, blaming
that although the task force withdrew other measures against Myanmar after
the country enacted the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Law in 2004,
Myanmar still remains on the said list until it fully implements the
necessary laws.

Myanmar promulgated a law in June 2002 to control money laundering and
financial institutions such as banks are required to report to the Central
Control Board their clients' fiscal activities and report any cashes
exceeding 100 million kyats (100, 000 US dollars) and any other suspicious
account activities.

However, no suspected laundering has so far been reported although the
board had monitored over 2,000 reports on cash and property transactions,
the police official of the International Relations Department of the Home
Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the central control board has provided trainings to some dozens
of officials from more than 20 state and private banks in Yangon and
Mandalay on countering money laundering and financing terrorism.

Myanmar has set up an eight-member investigation body under the central
control board to launch probe into matters legalizing money and property
obtained by illegal means.

As part of its increased international cooperation in the aspects, Myanmar
joined in signing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
in April 2004.

______________________________________
DRUGS

March 5, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
Burmese Wa groups says region to be drug-free by June

(Newsreader) Burma remains as one of the world's biggest drug producing
nations and has failed to implement the international norms of
anti-narcotic activities. That assertion was made by the US government in
its annual anti-drug report issued on 5 March. The report said
Afghanistan's opium cultivation rate has reached alarming conditions while
Burma remains the world's leader in the production of amphetamines. The US
government annual report added, although opium cultivation has dropped a
bit in Wa-controlled regions, ya ba or amphetamine production continues to
rise.

Dear listeners. When DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) contacted the UWSA
(United Wa State Army), a Wa leader said they are trying their utmost to
totally eradicate poppy cultivation by year's end.

(Unidentified Wa leader - recording) Well, we held a press conference last
month and explained our plans for drug eradication. We issued a statement
and that have been distributed. We plan to declare Wa area as a drug free
zone by June 2005. We invite and welcome any individual to personally come
and visit us, to see for himself and applaud the achievement.

(Newsreader) That was a report by a Wa leader. Furthermore, the UWSA plans
to hold a seized drugs and poppy fields destruction ceremony at its
headquarters in Panghsang on 6 March. He said invitations have been sent
to the northeast military command commander, government officials,
diplomats, and journalists to come and witness the ceremony.

Although poppy fields would be destroyed tomorrow, when DVB asked why the
region remains the world's leader in the production of amphetamines such
as ya ba, the Wa leader refuted the allegations as follows;

(Unidentified Wa leader - recording) In this day and age, there are many
counterfeits in this world and even the US dollar is counterfeited. We see
it that way. The Was are simple people - how could we produce all these
amphetamines? I request you as an educated person to think carefully and
investigate where the raw materials come from and where the diesel oil
comes from. What can you do in the Wa region? Nothing much.

(Newsreader) That was a Wa leader's reaction to the drug report. The SPDC
(State Peace and Development Council) military government began its
anti-narcotic drive and implemented its anti-drug strategy in 1999 and
plans to totally eradicate narcotic drugs in Burma by 2014. According to
the SPDC's 15-year drug eradication strategy, 2004 was the final year of
its first five-year plan. But, the US government annual report shows Burma
as the world's greatest producer of opium for three consecutive years.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 5, Agence France Presse
ASEAN worried over pace of democratic reforms in Myanmar: Singapore FM

Singapore: ASEAN is worried about the pace of democratic reforms in
Myanmar and its impact on ties with dialogue partners ahead of Yangon's
takeover as chairman of the group next year, Singapore's foreign minister
said.

Foreign Minister George Yeo said unless Myanmar authorities handled the
situation carefully, the credibility of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations would be in jeopardy.

Transcripts of Yeo's remarks during a debate in parliament were released
to the media late Friday.

Yeo was asked about the impact of Myanmar's chairmanship of ASEAN next
year, which has sparked a US warning it would boycott a series of meetings
in Yangon unless the army-ruled state improves its human rights record.

The European Union has also been uneasy about Myanmar's leadership of the
group. Chairmanship of ASEAN is rotated annually among the bloc's 10
members in alphabetical order.

"We have a problem. Although we have not formally discussed this in ASEAN,
I know that many of the foreign ministers in ASEAN worry about it," Yeo
said.

He said while Myanmar last month re-launched a convention aimed at framing
a new constitution, progress remained uncertain and opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi remained in detention.

A "roadmap" to democracy also has no time frame and a UN effort to
facilitate and advance the reconciliation process has yielded little
progress.

"The real point of concern is that what happens in Myanmar affects ASEAN
as a whole and our relationship with our dialogue partners," Yeo said.

He recalled that ASEAN fought and succeeded to keep Myanmar part of a
meeting of ASEAN and European foreign ministers in Hanoi last year despite
moves by the Europeans to exclude the military-ruled country.

"But subsequent developments in Yangon undermined our position. I hope
that the ASEAN spirit of consultation and consensus will enable us to find
a solution for next year.

"Unless the Myanmar authorities handle the situation carefully, ASEAN's
credibility and cohesion would be jeopardised," Yeo said.

While ASEAN would convey this sentiment in a "non-confrontational manner"
and behind closed doors, Yeo said that "in the end... some hard messages
may have to be put across" because the regional bloc is being affected.

Apart from Myanmar and Singapore, ASEAN's other members are Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam.

The United States in December warned it might skip ASEAN meetings held in
Myanmar if the human rights situation did not improve, a point reinforced
in the US State Department's latest human rights report.

The report accused Myanmar security forces of raping and torturing
prisoners and said the country's human rights record has worsened.

Myanmar's ruling junta denounced the report, describing it as "patently
false and is nothing more than a catalogue of allegations."

_____________________________________

March 7, Thai Press Reports
Asean parliamentarians urge Myanmar to become democratic

Parliamentarians across the region call on governments to push for
democracy, The Nation reports.

The Thai Parliamentary Caucus on Democracy in Burma has urged the Thai
government to serve as an 'honest broker' in supporting democracy and
peace as well as consulting the opposition.

Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, who chairs the Thai caucus, said Asean
governments must pressure Burma (Myanmar) to change and place conditions
on the junta-run country before it can host the annual Asean meeting next
year.

He said it was significant that Asean parliamentarians - with the
exception of Laos, Vietnam and Burma - have come together to express
solidarity and call for changes in Burma. Without changes in Burma, the
reputation and image of the region will suffer forever," Kraisak warned.

The statement urged Asean to reconsider Burma's chairmanship of the Asean
annual meeting next year.

It also called on Asean to explore the possibility of implementing the
Asean 'Troika' mechanism to push for real democratic reform in Burma,
beginning with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners.

The Thai caucus is part of the regional Asean Inter-Parliamen-tary Caucus
on Democracy in Burma (AIPMC) - also comprised of parliamentarians from
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The AIPMC, established late last year, is headed by Malaysian MP Zaid
Ibrahim. Delegates include Malaysian opposition chief Lim Kit Siang,
Indonesia's Nursyahbani Katjasu-gakana and Mulfahri Harahap, the
Philippines' Loretta Rosales and Cambodia's Son Chhay.

More than 133 elected MPs have signed a petition calling for the expulsion
of Burma if the country fails to reform, Kraisak said.

The group is scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai
today to discuss the situation in Burma as well as the APIMC proposals.

_____________________________________

March 4, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
East Timor leaders demand immediate release of Burma's Suu Kyi

(Newsreader) East Timor President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose
Ramos Horta have demanded the immediate release of Burma's democracy
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They made the demand during an interview with
DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) correspondent Khin Maung Soe Minn in Dili,
who filed this report.

(Khin Maung Soe Minn - recording) East Timor President Xanana Gusmao
received me at the President's House. He sent his greetings to Aung San
Suu Kyi and expressed his respect and admiration for her determination to
lead the people of Burma to freedom and for her devotion to democracy. He
added that he knows it is a difficult time for her and the people of
Burma. He expressed his full support for her struggles and decisions.

When I met (Jose) Ramos Horta, East Timor Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace
Prize winner, he remarked that the imprisonment of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
and not only Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but of many other Burmese, is going on
for far too long. He said the junta imprisoned her for absolutely no
reason. He went on to say that the East Timor Government understands why
the country's military junta (the State Peace and Development Council,
SPDC) is afraid of this physically petite but great leader.

But he made clear that although East Timor completely supports Burma's
move towards democracy he is against the sanctions imposed on Burma by
western countries. He said the best way for Burma is to drop the
sanctions, open up the country, let tourists flock to Burma, let foreign
investments pour into Burma, and for all UN agencies, World Bank, and
other international organizations to become involved in Burma. Then only
they will be able to open Burma's freedom door. He also acknowledged that
his idea might not be popular among his Burmese friends and Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi.

Ramos Horta also hinted that East Timor wants to establish diplomatic
relations with the SPDC military junta who is an ASEAN member. He said
East Timor's bid to eventually join ASEAN will meet with opposition from
the Burmese military. He noted that they might not be very happy at the
moment because of East Timor's position of supporting democracy, but he
added that East Timor will have to eventually establish diplomatic ties
with the Burmese military junta because Burma is an ASEAN nation. He said
he is trying to visit Burma to find ways to establish diplomatic relations
but so far he has received no response from the Burmese military junta.

_____________________________________

March 7, Xinhua General News Service
First batch of Myanmar workers re-issued with ID cards in Thailand

Bangkok: The first batch of Myanmar workers who lost their identity cards
and work permit during last year's tsunami in Thailand has been reissued
with the documents, local newspaper reported Monday.

About 200 Myanmar workers have received new or replaced documents, said
Vasant Sathorn, head of the Office of Foreign Workers Administration.

He said officials were cooperating with several non- governmental
organizations (NGO) in solving the problem of Myanmar workers in Takua Pa
district of Phangnga province.

Fearing being rounded Rup and deported, Many Myanmar workers who lost
their identities hid themselves in the first months after the tsunami
disaster.

"Now we are trying to disseminate necessary information to them via radio
and pamphlets in their own language," Vasant was quoted as saying by
Bangkok Post newspaper.

He believed those in hiding could gradually get assistance.

Adisorn Kerdmongkok, from Thai Action for Democracy in Myanmar, said those
working in prawn farms, construction sites and restaurants were now
getting help while those in fishery sector, especially at Ban Nam Khem of
Prangnga province remained the most destitute group.

Several UN agencies earlier said around 7,000 workers suffered from
tsunami in one way or another.

The Takua Pa center was currently helping with the reissuing of legal
documents to some 130 Myanmar workers, said Htoo Chit, field coordinator
of the Tsunami Action Group.

_____________________________________

March 6, Agence France Presse
UN body urges Malaysia to free Aceh, Myanmar migrants detained in crackdown

Kuala Lumpur: The UN refugee agency Sunday urged Malaysian authorities to
free 13 people from Indonesia and Myanmar detained in a crackdown on
illegal immigrants and denied issuing documents indiscriminately to asylum
seekers.

Volker Turk, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
Malaysia, told AFP the 13 -- 10 from tsunami-hit Aceh province and three
Rohingyas from Myanmar were being held at the Semenyih detention centre,
south of Kuala Lumpur.

"They are holders of UNHCR card. I do not know why they were arrested.
They should be freed. I have informed the Home Affairs Minister (Azmi
Khalid) not to deport them," he said.

Malaysia on March 1 launched a controversial operation to round up, whip
and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly
Indonesians, following the end of a four-month amnesty.

Home Minister Azmi on Thursday said illegal immigrants from Aceh would be
spared detention on humanitarian grounds but said the UNHCR had
indiscriminately issued letters to Acehnese asylum seekers.

"All these UNHCR letters cannot be accepted as bona fide. There is
information that some are not genuine," he was quoted as saying by New
Straits Times newspaper.

Turk however said every asylum seeker underwent a strict interview by UN
officers.

"We refute the allegation. UN has a stringent process in place to ensure
documents are issued to those interviewed. It is a complex process. We do
not issue documents indiscriminately," he said.

Turk admitted there were "fake UNHCR documents" in circulation and said
officials rounding up illegal immigrants should communicate with the
agency to verify them.

Meanwhile the Sunday Star newspaper said thousands of Indonesians wanting
to return to Malaysia legally were stranded due to administrative delays
which have hit the construction and oil palm industries which depend on
cheap foreign labour.

"We acknowledge that there is a bottleneck and hope to sort things out
with our counterpart (in Jakarta)," said immigration department
enforcement director Ishak Mohamed.

Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn said the plantation sector was
short of 300,000 workers and the construction sector about 200,000
workers.

The UNHCR in December had expressed fears that asylum seekers from
military-ruled Myanmar and strife-torn Aceh would be swept up along with
illegal migrants.

An estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants are still in Malaysia, many of
whom sought jobs in the construction, plantation and service industries in
the face of unemployment at home.

The crackdown is part of Malaysia's largest blitz to flush out illegal
immigrants in three years.

_____________________________________

March 5, Associated Press
Red Cross officials allocate funds for tsunami-ravaged countries - Helen Luk

Hong Kong: Indonesia will receive about a third of the US$1.7 billion
([euro]973 million) in tsunami funds raised by the Red Cross, an official
said Saturday, as aid workers wrapped up a three-day meeting on how to
help the 11 countries hit by the disaster.

Indonesia's Aceh province was the worst hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and
tsunami, with more than 125,000 people perishing in the killer waves. Tens
of thousands are still missing, and bodies are still being discovered in
the debris.

Johan Schaar, who oversees the tsunami operation at the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the group plans
to spend an estimated US$599 million ([euro]452 million) on Indonesia,
US$342 million ([euro]258 million) on Sri Lanka and US$68 million
([euro]52 million) on the Maldives.

India will get about US$34 million ([euro]26 million) and the rest of the
donations will go to Thailand, Myanmar, Somalia and the Seychelles, Schaar
said.

Red Cross officials had gathered in Hong Kong to decide how to allocate
aid to survivors.

Schaar said the money would used for immediate relief and long-term plans,
such as helping survivors recover their livelihoods, and rebuilding homes,
schools and medical facilities.

The Red Cross will also spend US$171 million ([euro]129 million) to train
communities to deal with future catastrophes and increase their awareness
of planned disaster warning systems, he said.

"Clearly those who gave did so to help people to recover but they also
want us to do all we can to prevent human suffering from occurring. They
would rather that we save lives than pick up bodies," Schaar said.

A U.N. official said earlier that reconstruction in Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
India and the Maldives will cost between US$12 billion ([euro]9.1 billion)
and US$15 billion ([euro]11.4 billion) and will take at least a decade.

The tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake killed between 173,324
and 182,340 people. The number of missing ranges from 107,853 to 129,897 -
with most presumed dead - and hundreds of thousands are homeless or in
need.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 7, The Washington Post
Victims of a stalled revolution - Fred Hiatt

You can tell a lot about a government by the enemies it keeps.

The dictators of Burma, for example, have, since 1991, imprisoned a
gentleman by the name of U Saw Nay Don for the crime of supporting
democracy. When his wife died last year, security agents visited his
prison cell and offered to free him if he would confess the error of his
beliefs. U Saw Nay Don refused. He is still in prison. Later this month he
will turn 85.

Charm Tong, now a poised young woman of 23, has been an enemy of the
Burmese state since she was 6. Her parents, members of the persecuted Shan
nationality, sent her across the border into Thailand at that age to
escape the pillaging Burmese army, notorious for raping girls as young as
4 and press-ganging their parents into forced porterage.

She grew up essentially an orphan, watching friends forced out of school
to work as farmhands on Thai plantations, or as domestic workers or
prostitutes. By the time she was 17 she had become a human rights
activist.

While Burma's paranoid generals may reveal only their own insecurity when
they lock up 84-year-olds, you can't help thinking that they are
absolutely right to fear Charm Tong. As she talks about the suffering in
her native country, she radiates coiled fury, disciplined determination
and empathy. At an age when many Americans are still bringing laundry home
to their parents, she has helped found a school for refugees, a network of
women activists, a center to counsel rape survivors and to train other
counselors, a program to educate women about writing a democratic
constitution, and weaving and cooking enterprises to help fund all these
ventures.

For Charm Tong, becoming an activist was in part a process of attaching
names to horrors she had grown up with. "At first, we know what happened,"
she says. "But we didn't know, Oh, this is 'forced labor.' This is
'extrajudicial killing.' This is 'extortion.' "

Victims of the regime, she said, are desperate to attach those names and
inform the world. In 2002 she helped research and write a groundbreaking
report, "License to Rape," that documented the military's use of rape,
torture and sexual slavery as systematic weapons of war and tools of
terror. The report triggered widespread condemnation of Burma's rulers.
But Charm Tong sounds almost puzzled by what has not happened since.

"Now many people know," she says. "And still there is no change."

The persistence of evil is worth pondering amid the exuberance sparked by
pro-democracy movements in Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon and elsewhere. Burma
had its own democratic moment. In 1988 thousands of students bravely
protested against the regime. Aung San Suu Kyi, the serene and until then
apolitical daughter of Burma's independence hero, emerged as reluctant
leader of a democracy movement. In 1990, though she was under house arrest
(as she remains today), her National League for Democracy won four out of
every five seats in a parliamentary election.

Burma's corrupt generals, having utterly miscalculated their popularity,
clamped down. The parliament never met. Many of its elected members sit
instead in prison. And, if you discount the occasional internal
bloodletting as one greedy general purges another, the regime has
succeeded in maintaining power.

So democracy movements can fail, or at least stall. This is so if a regime
is genuinely unconcerned with the misery of its population and ruthless
enough to threaten and torture not only activists but their relatives --
and if the rest of the world chooses to shrug its shoulders.

In Burma's case, the United States has imposed economic sanctions, which
impinge on the regime. But their effectiveness is undermined by the
Japanese and Europeans, who cluck disapprovingly but are reluctant to
jeopardize commercial ties to a resource-rich Asian nation. China and
India want Burma inside their spheres of influence. U.N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan, whose envoy hasn't even managed to get a visa into Burma for
more than a year, expresses concern from time to time.

So Charm Tong continues to tell the stories of her Shan people. She says
soldiers rape and murder girls and dump them on well-trod paths,
threatening any relatives who would reclaim their bodies. Villages are
destroyed, pigs and chickens slaughtered, and families forced into
relocation camps. From there they are prevented from returning to their
fields, and they begin to go hungry. "People try their best to survive,
until they can't," Charm Tong says. And so the refugees keep coming.

_____________________________________

March 7, Nation
Can Asean parliamentarians deliver on Burma? - Kavi Chongkittavorn

It will soon be known whether Asean parliamentarians have what it takes to
be movers and shakers in regional affairs in the months to come. Belatedly
they are getting their act together after years of passivity to make sure
that next year’s Asean annual meeting is not in Burma and, better still,
to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The prospect of having Burma host and chair the meeting has already caused
much discomfort throughout the region. Eight years after Burma joined
Asean, amid much international criticism, the grouping is still waiting
for a restoration of democracy and national reconciliation, and now it
seems Asean governments have realised that additional pressure must be
brought to bear on Burma if anything is to change.

The other option is having to endure further international condemnation
and jeopardize the Asean ties with its dialogue partners.

It was not by accident that the Asean Inter-Parliamentarian Caucus on
Democracy in Burma (AICD) was established in Kuala Lumpur last November.
Malaysia, under former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was one of
Rangoon’s biggest supporters besides the disgraced former Indonesian
president Suharto, who had pushed for the inclusion of Burma in Asean at
all costs in 1997.

The current enthusiasm of Malaysian and Indonesian lawmakers to push for
change in Burma must be a reflection of their respective governments’
desires to ameliorate the situation in Burma, an act of redemption. This
sentiment is now shared by other Asean countries, Singapore in particular.
Vietnam, Brunei and Laos have not been part of this endeavour.

Later this month Singapore will launch a similar caucus, which will be
followed by one in the Philippines in early April and in Cambodia soon
after. This will be the first time that Asean MPs have formed a political
caucus and common position on an important issue involving the internal
affairs of one of the grouping’s members.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo characterised the prevailing mood
within Asean very well when he said last week that Asean ministers were
clearly unhappy with the situation in Burma and that the “road map to
democracy” had not made much progress.

Following Asean’s success in backing Burma’s membership in the Asia Europe
Meeting last November, Yeo was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia that
subsequent developments in Rangoon had undermined Asean’s position.
Dialogue partners of Asean, especially the US and the EU, have already
threatened to boycott the meeting next year in Burma.

In the past three months Asean lawmakers have sent out strong signals to
Burma that the military regime has failed to fulfil its commitments to
Asean and the international community to solve its political crisis and
start promoting national reconciliation. In addition, the road map and
ongoing National Convention have never been recognised by the democratic
movements inside or outside Burma.

Now that Asean politicians have staked out their new position, how will
their governments, which have shied away from tackling this embarrassing
member, respond? Throughout its 38-year history, Asean has avoided any
interference in the domestic affairs of its member countries. Will the
Burmese situation prove an exception to the rule?

Asean foreign ministers will discuss Burma during their retreat next month
in Cebu, the Philippines. It will be interesting to follow up on the
outcome and see which countries are the first to raise the issue now that
it is in vogue.

Bangkok-based Asean diplomats were saying that Thailand would like to take
the lead to push Burma for changes because it has a close relation with
the junta leaders.

One of them said that Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai even told the
visiting Malaysian MP Zaid Ibrahim, the president of the AICD, during a
meeting in Bangkok last week that he would be willing to circulate the
AICD memorandum among his colleagues at the retreat.

If Surakiart really keeps his promise, it will mean that Thailand is also
seeking a way out of the Burma quagmire. That would imply a change of
heart on the part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as well. So far, he
has yet to instruct members of his Thai Rak Thai Party to join the Thai
caucus on Burma set up last week by Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, who also
serves as the AICD vice president. Other Asean caucuses on Burma comprise
both government and opposition parties.

In the past four years Thaksin has single-handedly shaped and influenced
Thai policy towards Burma. He has yet to prove to the Thais and the
international community that there are no conflicts of interest in his
Burma policies.

Thaksin was the only leader to fully support the now-ousted General Khin
Nyunt after he was named prime minister in August 2003. He also urged
Asean leaders to give Khin Nyunt the benefit of the doubt and abstain from
criticising his regime at the Bali summit in November 2003.

Given the current situation and the growing intransigence in Rangoon,
Burma apologists similar to Thaksin will probably prove increasingly
difficult within Asean. That explains why Burmese Prime Minister Soe Win
tried to lobby Philippine President Gloria Arroyo during his trip to
Manila last month not to take up an invitation from Asean, if it comes, to
host the meeting next year.

Barring any last-minute political manoeuvring, the noose around Burma’s
neck continues to tighten. The foundations have been laid for the Asian
foreign ministers to skip the 2006 meeting in Burma or even suspend its
membership, if need be, as the worse scenario. Obviously, the ministers
mischievously hope that all this pressure will force the junta leaders to
voluntarily withdraw from acting as host.

As mercurial as the regime is, it could go for this option and save Asean
from disgrace. This would be a win-win for Asean as it would allow the
Philippines to assume hosting responsibilities without violating the
principle of non-interference.