By DPA
Singapore : The Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) Sunday rejected a call by the US senate to suspend Myanmar following a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Asean Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said the US senate resolution was not practicable from the perspective of the 10-member regional bloc.
“Our approach is not to take such confrontational, drastic action, especially when it does not yield us any good results,” he told reporters ahead of the Asean leaders’ summit Tuesday.
Ong urged the international community to build on the efforts of Ibrahim Gambari, the special envoy of the UN Secretary General.
“The challenge for Asean is to prevent a slippage of what Gambari has initiated,” he said. “We believe that there should be intensified dialogue between Asean and the Myanmar leadership to stay focussed on this diplomacy.”
The US senate on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution urging Asean leaders to suspend Myanmar from the grouping for recent violent suppression of demonstrations.
At least 14 people were killed in September in Yangon City during the military crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks.
Amnesty International estimated that 700 people were still in detention after being arrested during the protests.
In its resolution, the US senate urged Asean to consider “appropriate disciplinary measures, including suspension, until such time as the government of Burma has demonstrated improved respect for and commitment to human rights.”
Ong said isolating Myanmar would not help resolve the problem.
“There’s really no other option,” he said. “The Myanmar guys are quite happy to be left alone. They are not afraid of being isolationists. They can just close their door and go into hibernation.”
He also urged international critics to stop telling Asean what to do.
“The rest of the world think they know what is good for all of us,” he said. “But what we are saying is please allow us some democracy of ideas, democracy of option. You are advocating democracy but you are saying your ideas is the only workable idea.”
Asean groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.