[Kabar-indonesia] IHT: A Crack in the Burmese Door [+Malaysia says region losing patience]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Malaysia signals region losing patience on Myanmar

International Herald Tribune
June 21, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor

A Crack in the Burmese Door  

Ibrahim A. Gambari 

NEW YORK 
 
For a number of years now, the military leaders of Myanmar, formerly called 
Burma, have seemed impervious to international calls for democratic reform. A 
special UN envoy for Myanmar, Rezali Ismail, was prohibited for more than two 
years from even stepping foot in the country.
 
Last month, something seemed to change. Myanmar's locked door popped open a 
small crack.
 
Traveling as an emissary of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, I was 
allowed into Myanmar on a three-day mission, during which the senior leadership of 
the country asserted a desire to turn a new page in the country's frayed 
relations with the international community.
 
The government also allowed me to see the country's best-known political 
prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has been under house 
arrest for most of the past 17 years. Myanmar's senior leader, General Than Shwe, 
agreed to the rare meeting when we spoke in Myanmar's remote new capital of 
Nay Pyi Daw.
 
Flanked by his high command during a wide-ranging discussion, the general 
seemed to understand the central message of my mission, that while the United 
Nations wants to help Myanmar address the many challenges it faces in economic 
development and other areas, the international community wants to see the 
country move more decidedly toward restoring democracy and fundamental human rights.
 
I listed a number of actions that would be taken as benchmarks of goodwill:
 
The release of Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners. There would be no 
clearer way to signal a genuine change of heart.
 
A halt in the recent military offensive against rebels in Myanmar's south 
that has reportedly taken a heavy toll on civilians.
 
Making the ongoing constitution-writing process an all-inclusive, fully 
democratic exercise.
 
Providing UN aid agencies and other humanitarian groups safe and unhindered 
access to get help to the many needy people in Myanmar.
 
Since my return, there have been mixed messages from Myanmar. 
Disappointingly, Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended for another year. Secretary General 
Annan, who had pleaded personally for her release, lamented this missed 
opportunity for Myanmar to back up its expressed commitments with actions.
 
In recent days, however, Myanmar freed a lesser-known dissident, for whose 
release I had also appealed. Ms. Su Su Nway had been jailed last October after 
protesting alleged forced labor practices.
 
Meanwhile, the UN received through diplomatic channels continued indications 
of the government's willingness to engage with the United Nations on the whole 
range of issues raised during my visit.
 
For skeptics, this is but a shallow gesture - the regime using an 
international visitor in an effort to release some of the pressure that has been building 
from the outside. There has been talk of bringing Myanmar before the UN 
Security Council, a move that would open the possibility of stronger international 
censure and other actions.
 
However, there are reasons to believe that the welcome I received was more 
than a mere publicity ploy.
 
Suu Kyi and members of her embattled political party, the National League for 
Democracy, told me they felt the United Nations might now be able to play a 
useful role as an impartial third party in helping them find common ground with 
the government on what would no doubt be a difficult road to national 
reconciliation. Government officials expressed a similar desire.
 
It is premature after one brief mission to come to any conclusions about the 
extent and depth of Myanmar's current opening. Sustained engagement may be the 
only way to arrive at a fuller assessment of the prospects for 
democratization, development and reconciliation.
 
It will, of course, be up to the Security Council to decide on a course of 
action. Myanmar is hardly alone as a country for which the international 
community, in trying to influence the course of events, finds itself debating the 
relative merits of diplomacy versus pressure, or a combination of both.
 
Though some may be tempted to lose patience with the diplomatic track, I 
believe we have no option but to persist. 
 
Ibrahim A. Gambari is the UN under secretary general for political affairs.
 
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Malaysia signals region losing patience on Myanmar

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 (AFP) -- Malaysia on Wednesday signalled the
region was close to washing its hands of Myanmar, saying the junta had
snubbed efforts to push for democracy and urging the UN to take over
the case.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) was being sidelined by the ruling generals, who
are under mounting international criticism from within and outside the
region.

"There is lack of confidence in Myanmar on ASEAN. I think the best
thing is for Myanmar to be put under the purview of the UN Secretary
General (Kofi Annan)," Syed Hamid told AFP.

"Myanmar does not want ASEAN to play a role. They see ASEAN as not
being fit to play a role," he said.

The military regime thumbed its nose at Syed Hamid in March when he
travelled to Yangon as an ASEAN envoy to check on its claims it is
shifting towards democracy.

Syed Hamid was denied access to detained opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, prompting him to say that regional leaders were "frustrated
and disullusioned" with their intransigent neighbour.

Shortly afterwards the junta allowed UN Under Secretary General
Ibrahim Gambari to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, and hold talks with the
junta's reclusive leader Senior General Than Shwe outside the new
capital of Pyinmana.

Syed Hamid said the action demonstrated that Myanmar -- which has
become an international pariah for its reluctance to abandon military
rule and improve its human rights record -- does not want ASEAN to
play a bridging role.

"The don't see fit for ASEAN to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. I have gone to
Myanmar but they did not allow me to meet Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political leaders," he said. "That is the way they deal with us."

ASEAN has put aside its policy of non-interference in members' affairs
in recent months to demand that Myanmar's ruling generals introduce
democratic reforms or risk bringing the entire region into disrepute.

Regional governments have begun openly expressing irritation with the
Myanmar generals, and there have been rumblings that it should be
ejected from the ASEAN bloc, which it joined in 1997.

Syed Hamid lamented the fact that no ASEAN leader or foreign minister
had been invited to visit Myanmar's new capital and that the honour
was accorded instead to the UN official.

He said Myanmar was refusing to let the group speak on its behalf
because there was "not enough (ammunition)" to make their case --
referring to the slow progress of reform in the secretive nation.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years
later rejected the results of national elections won by the National
League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent 10 of the past 17 years in
detention at her lakeside home in Yangon.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, 
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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