Activists urge Asean to exclude Myanmar from charter

Anti-junta activists on Saturday urged Southeast Asian leaders to bar member state Myanmar from signing Asean's landmark charter until it answers for its violent suppression of protests.
The Free Burma Coalition said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which stages its annual summit here next week, should also suspend Myanmar from the 10-nation bloc if it failed to adopt democratic reforms. Myanmar's signing of the charter "will at once taint the Asean charter with blood," the group said in a letter addressed to the bloc's leaders and sent to host Singapore.
"By allowing Myanmar to sign without any redress of the Burmese people's sufferings, all the Asean nations will violate the tenets of the Asean charter," the coalition said.
The charter will make Asean a legal entity and is aimed at transforming the 40-year-old bloc into a rules-based grouping, like the European Union. The document maintains the bloc's principle of non-interference in members' internal affairs, which has been criticised as one reason for Asean's inability to rein in Myanmar. A group of elder Asean statesman tapped to help prepare the charter made recommendations for stronger language in the text, but their proposals have either been watered down or dropped in the final draft.
"You don't have it spelled out in the charter if you want to expel a member. It's up to the heads of states to decide, that is why they are sovereign," a senior Southeast Asian official told AFP. "If you put in that provision on expulsion, it may create a confrontational atmosphere. We don't want division," the official said.
But he said some member states, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia, felt very strongly that Myanmar should be held accountable for its deadly crackdown on dissent in September.
Another activist group, the Overseas Burmese Patriots, said Saturday they were formulating a petition to be given to Asean leaders and the UN Security Council, calling for tough action against Myanmar. "We urge the governments to adopt smart sanctions," said group spokesman Myo Myint Maung, stressing that these should directly target Myanmar's ruling generals.
Asean leaders should "initiate a situation where genuine dialogue can take place" in Myanmar, he said, adding that they had so far gathered more than 3,600 signatures.