Myanmar, terror top IPU agenda in Manila assembly

Myanmar’s continued detention of Aung San Suu Kuyi, terrorism and AIDS are to top the agenda in an upcoming meeting of world parliamentarians in the Philippines, officials said yesterday.

Some 1,500 legislators from Asia, Europe and the Americas were expected to attend the six-day Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly to begin in Manila tomorrow, officials said.

Among the key issues expected to be prominently discussed is Myanmar’s continued refusal to heed international calls to free Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kuyi, said Senate President Franklin Drilon, host of the meeting.

Drilon said parliamentarians from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would hold their own discussions about Myanmar on the sidelines of the meeting.

Drilon told reporters any ASEAN-wide consensus on Myanmar would be communicated to the IPU delegates as an "emergency issue."

"We will be discussing this in the ASEAN parliamentary meeting on Sunday," said Drilon, who earlier indicated the Philippines would lead pressure to strip Myanmar of the rotating ASEAN chairmanship in 2006.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

IPU secretary general Anders Johnsson said a delegation from Myanmar, including parliamentarians in exile, would testify about the state of human rights in the country.

"The main concern is that there is no parliament in Myanmar and this is inadmissible," Johnsson said.

An IPU committee on human rights would hear the Myanmar delegates’ testimonies and make an official report to the plenary later in the week, Johnsson said.

Other issues to be raised in the meeting were terrorism, the AIDS pandemic, the participation of women in politics, and cross-border terrorism, said IPU president Sergio Paez Verdugo, a senator from Chile.

"Justice without borders is also one of our priorities," he said.

Verdugo said that the HIV/AIDS pandemic should be treated like terrorist attacks because of the number of lives that it has taken over the years.

One particular issue would be the North Korean nuclear arsenal development, which has been the subject of enormous pressure from the countries in the region and around the world.

The North Korea and South Korea relations could also be a matter of discussions during the debates as Johnsson noted that senior delegations from both countries will be present.

Johnsson said that there will be bilateral discussions on conflict issues around the world and that the IPU has been an effective tool in the past for resolutions of conflicts.

On the absence of a delegation from the United States, Johnsson explained that this has nothing to do with the peace and order situation in the Philippines.

He said that the US Congress is just not active in participating in multilateral affairs.

Verdugo praised the Philippine government for hosting the IPU conference, its 112th General Assembly, which he said would be the most well-attended in recent years.

Verdugo said that there are at least 700 parliamentarians from 120 parliaments who will be in attendance and that there have so far been no hitches.

About 4,000 police officers will be on duty for the conference. The IPU General Assembly will end on April 8 with a presentation of all the committee reports. — AFP, Marvin Sy