USA: ASEAN members condemn Myanmar violence

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) say they are "appalled" by the violence against protesters in Myanmar. The ASEAN statement is welcomed by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations voiced "revulsion" on Thursday (September 27) at the killings in Yangon and sternly demanded that fellow member Myanmar stop using violence against demonstrators. In unusually blunt language for the group, the nine other foreign ministers said they were "appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used" on crowds and demanded the Myanmar government "immediately desist from the use of violence against demonstrators." Nine protesters were killed in Myanmar's main city, Yangon, on Thursday when soldiers and police fired on crowds protesting decades of army rule and economic hardship, state media said. They were the country's biggest pro-democracy demonstrations in two decades, led by Buddhist monks. The ministers "expressed their revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win over reports that the demonstrations in Myanmar are being suppressed by violent force and that there has been a number of fatalities," said the statement, issued after talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The statement was striking because the group operates on a consensual basis and holds as a core principle "noninterference in the internal affairs of one another." Foreign ministers of the 10-member Southeast Asian grouping released a report that was read by Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Yeo. "They were appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used and demanded that the Myanmar government immediately desist from the use of violence against demonstrators. They expressed their revulsion to the Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win over reports that the demonstrations in Myanmar are being suppressed by violent force," said Yeo on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday (September 27) where she discussed the situation in Myanmar and said that the United States was committed to maintaining international focus on the current issues in the country. "We've had a very good discussion here at this meeting about ASEAN but I also had an opportunity to address the representatives of Burma directly. But I don't want to take what is a very good meeting with ASEAN and has been focused on a common agenda. I would refer to you what I consider to be a very good statement by this organization and I can just assure you that the United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place in Rangoon," she said. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also praised the ASEAN statement. "ASEAN is very important and this declaration, it is a tough declaration. It certainly has to be noticed and certainly underlined because they are, the ASEAN countries, the only ones able to make efficient pressure on Myanmar so if it has been done this is a success for democracy and this is a success for the demonstrators in Myanmar," said Kouchner A U.N. spokeswoman had announced that Myanmar's junta agreed to receive a U.N. envoy to discuss the crisis in the southeast Asian country, ruled by the army since 1962. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian U.N. undersecretary-general, on a mission to the region. He was in Myanmar's neighbor Thailand awaiting a visa.

ITN Source | September 28, 2007

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