RP to renew call for reforms in Myanmar

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo will visit Myanmar next month to renew calls for the junta-ruled country to implement democratic reforms.

Diplomatic sources said Romulo wanted an earlier schedule for the visit to Myanmar instead of December, when the Philippines assumes the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Romulo earlier said he would visit Myanmar in December as he waits for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to make arrangements for the trip with Myanmar’s embassy in Manila.

Manila will assume chairmanship of the ASEAN after Myanmar announced during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos last July its decision to give up its turn at the chairmanship, which is based on alphabetical rotation.

Myanmar said 2006 is a critical year and it wanted to focus its attention on the national reconciliation efforts and the democratization process.

Romulo is the second official of an ASEAN country to visit Myanmar. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar visited the country last month.

Senior General Than Shwe, who chairs the Myanmar junta, had invited President Arroyo and Romulo to visit his country.

Albar was unable to meet the junta chairman nor visit political prisoner and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Romulo said the foreign ministers had given their views during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat last month in Ubud, Indonesia and the general consensus was to continue to be engaged with Myanmar.

Romulo reiterated the Philippines’ position made on various regional fora that Myanmar should immediately implement its road map to democracy, release Suu Kyi from house arrest, include the National League Democracy (NLD) in the crafting of a new constitution and allow the United Nations secretary general’s special envoy to visit Yangon soon.

The military junta in Myanmar seized power in 1988. It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over office when Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly. It has also attracted international criticism for jailing hundreds of political detainees and other alleged human rights abuses.

The junta said that it is still committed to its road map to democracy but it did not give a time frame for its completion. — Pia Lee Brago