Suu Kyi should be inspiration for UN rights body-EU

GENEVA, June 19 (Reuters) Long-detained Myanmar Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi should be an example for the work of the United Nations' new Human Rights Council, the European Union said today.

Speaking for the 25-member EU, Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told the opening session of the Council that Suu Kyi, 61 today, was a fearless woman who ''would surely have hoped to join us here in her freedom....'' ''Her vision and courage should be our inspiration in this forum,'' Plassnik declared.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost without interruption since the party she led won national elections in 1990. She was prevented from taking power by the country's military rulers, in power for more than 40 years.

Earlier in the day, in a break with regional diplomatic tradition, parliamentarians from the South East Asian ASEAN grouping said in Jakarta that Myanmar should be strongly reprimanded for resisting democratic change.

The country's position in the 10-nation grouping should be reconsidered so that it could not be accused ''of backing an unjust military regime who do not want to consider human rights at all,'' a Malaysian spokesman for the lawmakers said.

In her speech in Geneva, Plassnik said the EU was committed to supporting women human rights defenders ''who put their freedom, safety and sometimes their lives on the line to advance the cause of human rights.'' The Austrian minister said the 47-nation Council, replacing the widely-discredited UN Human Rights Commission, should pay special attention to the situation of women around the globe.

''In too many parts of the world they are still denied equal rights, including equal access to economic resources and political decision-making,'' she declared.

REUTERS SHB PM1937