Myanmar rejected international calls to give up the rotating ASEAN chairmanship because of its poor democracy and human rights record as Southeast Asian foreign ministers met yesterday.
Foreign Minister U Nyan Win said the EU and US could not force Myanmar to abandon the Association of Southeast Asian Nations chair next year.
"That is their attitude, not ours. We can decide ourselves because we are an independent country," U Nyan Win told reporters late Saturday as he arrived in this central seaside resort.
Asked if he felt his military-run country's record on human rights and democracy qualified it to chair ASEAN, he said: "This is our responsibility. This is all the ASEAN [members'] attitude."
"Vigorous" debate was expected on Myanmar's chairmanship, which is threatening to divide the 10-member grouping, as the ministers go into an informal dinner later and a retreat today.
Calls to strip Myanmar of the chairmanship have grown louder in recent weeks. Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo acknowledged there were bitter debates over Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997 but has ignored international calls for democratic reforms.
"Well, one thing about ASEAN is that we have to arrive on a consensus, but in arriving at a consensus, we have to expect vigorous debate and that is expected," Romulo said in a news conference here.
"But in the end, we have to consider the credibility [of ASEAN], what is good for ASEAN," he said. "I have full faith and confidence that each of the 10 members will have this always in their minds and in their considerations."
ASEAN's newer members Cambodia and Vietnam have said they will support Myanmar's chairmanship. Laos is likely to back Yangon as well, while Thailand has said it believes in "constructive engagement."
The Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, however, are pushing for a timetable for the junta's so-called "roadmap to democracy" and have repeatedly appealed for Yangon to free detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which the won elections in 1990, has rejected the junta's democracy roadmap which the US and the EU have also denounced as a sham.
The foreign ministers are expected to come up with a consensus on Myanmar's chairmanship, due next year, which analysts warned could alienate the 10-nation bloc from its Western allies.
If Myanmar took over the rotating helm of ASEAN, it would host the annual leaders' summit and foreign ministers' meeting in 2007 as well as a major security forum traditionally attended by dialogue partners including the EU and the US.
But both Brussels and Washington, which have imposed tough economic sanctions on Myanmar, have warned they would boycott ASEAN meeting if the forum's policies were being steered by a country with a questionable track record.
Romulo noted that other ASEAN members like the Philippines "have expressed in no uncertain terms" their position that Myanmar should pursue the roadmap.
ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong on Saturday said he believed the issue would not fracture the grouping, citing its long-held tradition of consensus-building and non-interference.
A Southeast Asian diplomat formerly stationed in Yangon said the military regime was prepared to draw out its stand-off with the West and would not succumb to pressure from fellow ASEAN countries.
"If they could make the United States kneel, how much more ASEAN?" he asked.
"If ASEAN really wants to pressure [Myanmar], they should have done away with constructive engagement a long time ago," he said.
ASEAN members would likely give Myanmar a light slap on the wrist, he said.
"If it was up to me, I'd give them a kick," he added.
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