Myanmar skips South-east Asian defence meet

Kuala Lumpur, May 8: Myanmar, facing calls from its neighbours to speed democratic reform, has not sent a representative to the first-ever meeting of Southeast Asian defence ministers, a Malaysian defence official said today.

The ministers are to meet in the Malaysian capital tomorrow under the umbrella of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), 39 years after the grouping formed with the aim of strengthening cooperation and making the region a safer place.

But Myanmar, which has told ASEAN it does not care for pressure from it, has not sent a representative to a meeting of senior officials today, or for tomorrow's meeting of ministers, a Malaysian defence ministry official said.

''That's the only country that's not represented, so there are nine countries altogether,'' the official said.

ASEAN, a 10-nation group known for its emphasis on consensus, has shown rare displeasure in recent years with foot-dragging on reforms by Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military in various guises for more than 40 years.

Last week Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told Myanmar's ruling junta the credibility of its ''roadmap to democracy'' would be at risk if it banned the opposition party of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar's military rulers have threatened to ban the National League for Democracy (NLD), accusing it of links to ''expatriate groups, terrorists and destructive groups'' that they blame for attacks on the former Burma.

The NLD won elections in 1990 but was denied power by the junta, and Suu Kyi has spent about 10 of the past 15 years in some form of detention.

Myanmar has proposed a seven-step ''roadmap to democracy'' and the junta says step one, drafting a new constitution, is under way.

But its ASEAN neighbours think the process has been too slow and sent Syed Hamid to meet the country's rulers in March. But the Malaysian minister said his fact-finding mission was incomplete because he had been unable to meet Suu Kyi.

Common ground can be elusive in Southeast Asia, home to 500 million people and a variety of political systems, especially in the area of national security. There is no talk yet of the defence ministers' forum evolving into a European Union-style alliance that can assemble regional peacekeeping forces.

The annual meetings of ASEAN defence ministers also aim to give the grouping a clearer voice in the wider ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), an Asia-Pacific security grouping that brings in the world's major powers, including the United States, China, Russia and the European Union. The talks in Malaysia are likely to end with agreement to cooperate in areas of common interest, such as counter-terrorism, maritime piracy, smuggling and trafficking in migrants and drugs, an ASEAN official has said.

REUTERS