US-Asean summit ‘a chance for unity in policy on Burma’

Friday, 24 September 2010 07:33 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Today’s summit between US President Barack Obama and leaders from Southeast Asia is being heralded as a potentially defining moment in relations between Washington and Southeast Asian governments, offering an opportunity “to align divergent policies ahead of elections” in Burma.

Human Rights Watch, based in New York, in a statement released yesterday, urged Obama and his Southeast Asian counterparts to unite in pressuring the Burmese junta to release political prisoners and initiate dialogue in the run-up to what the research and advocacy NGO deemed “Burma’s flawed elections” to take place on November 7.

The leaders are scheduled to meet a day shy of the third anniversary of the biggest monk-led demonstrations to grip Rangoon, known as the “saffron revolution”.

“This summit is an opportunity for the US and Asean leaders to send a clear message to Burma’s rulers that their intransigence, denial of basic freedoms and cynical election manipulation harm the region’s progress,” Human Rights Watch acting Asia director Sophie Richardson said.

“Asean should be raising the bar on democracy in Southeast Asia, not lowering it,” Dr. Richardson added, while arguing that the realisation of justice and human rights should be paramount to Washington interests in Southeast Asia.

The call comes at a time when relations between the United States and Southeast Asia continue to ebb and flow.

Human Rights Watch maintains that the reaction of regional governments to the situation in Burma and specifically the approaching elections has been left wanting, with statements from respective authorities failing to pressure the Burmese regime to change its policies and hopeful for some kind of positive outcome from the polling.

However, curbs on freedom of expression, assembly and association are identified as ensuring the election will be far from meeting international standards, while a lack of resources for competing parties leaves the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), contesting in every district, with a distinct advantage.

“The only way to seize the minds of the generals, those still serving and the recently retired ones preparing for their new roles as parliamentarians,” said Richardson in the appeal to Obama and Asean leaders, “is to close ranks against the ongoing repression in Burma”.