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Published on November 21, 2007

Prior to the signing cere-mony at the 13th summit in Singapore, leaders of the 10 governments were placed in an awkward position when Burma's Prime Minister Thein Sein opposed an idea suggested by host Singapore to bring the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari into the briefings at the Asean and East Asia Summit.

The leaders turned an agreeable reception dinner late on Monday night into a serious meeting that ended up with the chairman's statement urging Burma to continue cooperation with the UN and open up a meaningful dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for national reconciliation.

"Most leaders expressed the view that Myanmar [Burma] cannot go back or stay put. The process of national reconciliation has to move forward, and the UN has played a vital role in this process," said Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong in his chairman's statement.

However, Burma's stance indicated that any room for Asean to deal with the political crisis in the military-ruled country was very narrow. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Asean respected Burma's wish to deal directly with the UN.

"If Burma needs help, Asean is available but at this stage we respect their decision," Surayud told reporters.

Incoming Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Asean still needed to take some role in engaging Burma.

"There would be two steps to solve the problem. As Burma wants to engage with the UN, Asean should respect that, but beyond the UN task, if Burma needs help, Asean should do something," he said.

The Asean charter will turn the 40 year-old regional grouping into a rule-based organisation that will create a clear structure and decision making by the group.

It will also give birth to the human rights body to promote and protect the basic rights of Asean citizens, but no one in the meeting had a clear idea of how to put it into the context of the current crisis in troubled Burma.

The military junta launched a bloody crackdown on massive street protests in September that killed, as the Burmese government admitted, at least 15 people with about 3,000 being detained.

Surayud said the charter had nothing to do with the current situation since it would take at least a year before it came into force and delivers the human rights body.

The charter will not be enacted until all 10 member states ratify it, a process that might take at least a year. The human rights body, as mentioned in Article 14, would not be tangible before a completion of its terms of reference. It also remained unclear whether the body would have the will to protect humans right.

Along with the charter, Asean also signed the Declaration of the Asean Economic Community to have a European style of community including a common market and production base by 2015.

The Declaration on Environment Sustainability, and the Asean Declaration on the 13th Session of Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, plus the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol were also signed during the summit.

Supalak G Khundee

 The Nation

Singapore