ASEAN to Pursue Constructive Engagement with Myanmar After Power Struggle

  ASEAN-MYANMAR-PHILIPPINES - 10/25/2004 12:39 - AFP

MANILA, Oct 25 (AFP) - Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors will pursue their constructive engagement policy with the ruling junta following a Yangon power struggle that ousted Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said Monday. "We'll be be having our own forum in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to convey our views to the new leadership of Myanmar," Arroyo told the Foreign Correspondents Association here, referring to an end of November ASEAN summit in Laos. Arroyo refused to publicly comment on the ouster on Tuesday by military hardliners of Khin Nyunt, the head of Myanmar's military intelligence for two decades. The official was also placed under house arrest over corruption allegations. Arroyo said it has been the consensus of ASEAN, grouping Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to pursue constructive engagement with Yangon, "and that is still our goal." The conditional embrace, which sets ASEAN in conflict with the West which wants Yangon's military rulers isolated, "is the Asian way" and designed "to encourage Myanmar to open up its democratic space," Arroyo said. cgm/mm/rcw