SE Asia lays path for future, old problems nag

CEBU, Philippines, Jan 13: Southeast Asian countries laid the foundation for an economic and political bloc, signed a convention on counter-terrorism but failed today to find common ground on Myanmar's woeful human rights record.

The Association of South East Asian Nations speeded up its goal for regional economic integration by five years to 2015 and agreed to transform itself into a rules-based organisation with teeth at an annual summit in the central Philippines.

But as ever at ASEAN meetings, leaders disagreed over how to pressure Myanmar to democratise.

Embarrassed by a U S resolution against its most notorious member at the U N Security Council -- which was vetoed by China and Russia on Friday -- ASEAN members such as Indonesia rebuked the junta at a welcome banquet on the eve of today's summit.

''How are we going to help you if you are not making progress,'' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, according to an ASEAN official, who did not want to be identified.

But other countries, particularly newer members of ASEAN from Indochina, maintained that the organisation should stick to its traditional policy of non-interference in domestic affairs.

This golden rule of ''hear no evil, see no evil'' is up for review under bold proposals, endorsed by the leaders this weekend, for drafting a mini-constitution for ASEAN this year.

Anxious to compete against the growing financial might of China and India, ASEAN wants to establish itself as a rules-based organisation, more akin to the European Union, with faster decision-making processes, particularly for economic decisions.

The charter would include systems to monitor and enforce agreements and panels that could issue binding decisions in disputes.

But the most ground-breaking proposal gives ASEAN, whose combined population of 558 million is greater than the European Union, the power to suspend, or in extreme cases, expel members for serious breaches of the charter.

That could possibly put Myanmar's membership in jeopardy if the junta continued to put up roadblocks to democracy.

But the 10 leaders, whose members range from an absolute monarchy and military juntas to parliamentary democracies and one-party communist states, failed to agree on the inclusion of a human rights mechanism within the charter's blueprint.

The human rights suggestion from Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the current chairman of ASEAN, was shot down by Indochina at a private leaders' retreat, according to an ASEAN official.

DISPUTES Security was tight in the resort city of Cebu, where the summit finally got under way after being postponed from December amid typhoon and terrorist warnings.

Western governments continued to warn of terrorist bomb plots and more than 13,000 troops guarded the streets as rain hammered down.

Inside the summit's plush hotel venue, the leaders inked a counter-terrorism agreement that will clamp down on the movement of arms and fighters between their remote islands through better information exchange and stricter border controls.

The security declaration also calls on countries to address the root causes of terrorism in a region with a kaleidoscope of religions and cultures and long-running territorial disputes.

In keeping with the summit's theme of, ''One Caring and Sharing Community,'' leaders also agreed to improve the wages and treatment of migrant workers, redouble efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and better coordinate disaster prevention in a region that has seen a devastating tsunami, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires and pandemics over the last couple of years.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

REUTERS