Southeast Asian lawmakers want Myanmar suspended

JAKARTA, June 19 (Reuters) Myanmar must receive a stern reprimand such as suspension from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for dragging its feet in instituting democracy and freeing dissidents, regional lawmakers said today.

ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus members made that call as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi -- whose party won a 1990 election in Myanmar only to be denied power by the military junta -- marked her 61st birthday under house arrest.

Caucus president Zaid Ibrahim from Malaysia called on ASEAN and the UN Security Council to increase pressure on the Myanmar government.

''Burma's position in ASEAN must be reconsidered. I believe something must be done so that the international community do not accuse us of backing an unjust, military regime who do not want to consider human rights at all,'' he told a news conference, using Myanmar's former name.

An Indonesian member of the caucus said the junta had ignored polite calls from its neighbours for too long.

''We are impatient. Myanmar's membership should be suspended, frozen because it has embarrassed all of us in ASEAN,'' said Indonesian legislator Djoko Susilo, although he conceding the group of 10 Southeast Asian nations lacks an official procedure to do such a thing.

Key players in ASEAN, a group known for its emphasis on consensus and non-interference in members' internal affairs, have shown rare public displeasure in recent years with foot-dragging on reforms in Myanmar, ruled by the military for more than 40 years.

But those members have still failed to do anything more substantive against Myanmar than express their views at such forums as a ministerial meeting in Indonesia last April.

Susilo said the Myanmar leadership needed to be ''slapped'' because it has failed to respond to kind gestures from neighbours, which have been rooting for Myanmar to follow up on its own democratisation scheme.

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

Its ASEAN neighbours think the process has been too slow while the West views the plan as more of a delaying tactic than a serious attempt at reform.

The caucus, which has members from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, also called on major Asian powers and Myanmar trade partners China and India to join the critical chorus.

Besides the Southeast Asian nations represented in the caucus and Myanmar, ASEAN also includes Brunei, Vietnam and Laos.

REUTERS SHB KN1614