ASEAN denies seeking face-saving exit for Myanmar

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Reuters) Malaysia used its role as chair of Southeast Asia's regional grouping to make a withering attack on fellow member Myanmar today, but denied it was trying to shame the country into quitting the bloc.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister said military-ruled Myanmar's foot-dragging toward democracy was challenging the credibility of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has pledged itself to democracy, human rights and rule of law.

''Myanmar appears to be deliberate in its disregard of our goodwill and concern,'' Syed Hamid Albar said in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal today.

But he denied at a news conference that his remarks were part of an ASEAN strategy to engineer a face-saving exit for Myanmar, with the generals withdrawing rather than being expelled.

''We do not want Myanmar to be out of ASEAN,'' Syed Hamid said on the eve of a meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur, where police have ringed the venue with heavy security, including helicopter surveillance.

ASEAN's increasing impatience with the slowness of democratic reform in Myanmar has led to speculation that, despite the public rhetoric, it would be happy for Myanmar to exit and thereby remove a thorn from the grouping's side.

ASEAN has become increasingly concerned that Myanmar's pariah status in the West could jeopardise its efforts to build a bigger role for itself in world affairs. The United States and the European Union both impose sanctions on the country.

''There could be some sort of face-saving arrangement for Myanmar, not thrown out but it decides to walk out,'' Singapore-based regional analyst Bruce Gale said.

''People are discussing this option behind closed doors.'' ASEAN Foreign Ministers plan to include some comments on their troublesome member in a joint communique, Syed Hamid said.

In an early draft seen by Reuters, ASEAN calls for the release from house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but was denied power. The military has ruled for more than 40 years.

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