Вильгельм Телль
LOMBOK, INDONESIA : The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed unanimously to call on the international community to end its boycott of Myanmar.
The grouping backed its call by citing Myanmar's election late last year and the release only a few days later by the military government of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya raised the issue for talks with other ASEAN foreign ministers.
He said ASEAN should tell the world that democracy has returned to Myanmar, which was formerly called Burma.
The US placed a ban on all imports from Myanmar in 2003, while the European Union (EU) has placed a raft of sanctions against the country for the past 15 years.
Criticism of the military government has centred on alleged human rights abuses and the placing under house arrest of opposition leader Suu Kyi for 15 of the past 21 years until after last year's general election, Myanmar's first, in 1990.
Mr Kasit said ASEAN should encourage support for Myanmar's new democracy. The regional grouping should also help bring about national reconciliation, elevate its people's quality of life and promote trade, investment and tourism, he said.
"When Myanmar becomes a democratic society, it is not the duty of the international community to set up a committee to manage the conflict, like in the past. We have to be confident that Myanmar can resolve its problems by itself," said Mr Kasit at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, which ends today.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who holds the ASEAN chair this year, said the bloc advocated "an immediate or early removal or easing of sanctions that have been applied against Myanmar by some countries".
"We believe that the international community needs to respond to recent developments to ensure that economic development in Myanmar can take place," Mr Natalegawa said.
Mr Kasit said ASEAN would encourage the Burmese government to talk with Ms Suu Kyi to help the national reconciliation effort and would seek to persuade Myanmar's ethnic minority groups to stop fighting with the military government.
ASEAN will ask Indonesia to send a delegation to Myanmar later this month to meet with the elected government and to observe its development.
Information obtained from the trip will be used in talks with the international community, the minister said.
Renewed registration of Ms Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy, is among the issues to be raised with the Burmese government, he said.
"ASEAN should not act as a defendant but it must point out the positive developments in Myanmar to the world, because ASEAN has set a target to become a single [economic] community in the next four years," Mr Kasit said.
Discussions regarding the ASEAN Plus Three forum, which encompasses the 10 ASEAN member nations and China, Japan and South Korea, were headed by tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Mr Natalegawa said the ASEAN countries had agreed to help find ways to contribute more on the issue.
Mr Kasit said the ASEAN Regional Forum could serve as an agency to discuss the Korean conflict.
On the South China Sea territorial disputes, Mr Kasit said ASEAN had agreed to set guidelines for the claimant states - which include four ASEAN countries - to negotiate with China.
"ASEAN should work with China to prevent the interference of the outsiders," Mr Kasit said. ASEAN also has agreed to promote investment among the 10 member nations to achieve its goal of becoming a single economic community in 2015, he said.
