ASEAN grapples with Thai-Cambodia dispute after issuing rebuke to Myanmar

The Associated Press ,  Singapore   |  Tue, 07/22/2008 12:47 PM  |  World

Southeast Asian nations held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss a simmering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia ahead of key security talks between regional powers.

Thailand and Cambodia are locked in a military standoff over land near an ancient temple that was recently declared a World Heritage Site. Bilateral talks Monday failed to resolve the dispute, and Cambodia said it was also seeking intervention from the U.N. Security Council.

With tensions escalating, the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held a special meeting over lunch on the sidelines of their annual gathering.

"This is unscheduled. That illustrates to us how important it is," Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim told reporters.

"It could be a test for ASEAN for the first time (since) two of ASEAN members are facing a border predicament," Rais said.

He said Thailand and Cambodia were both open to ASEAN's involvement. "The two of them are quite willing to submit to the jurisdiction" of ASEAN, he added, referring to Cambodia's request
to form an ASEAN inter-ministerial group.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda called for "utmost restraint."

The dispute comes at an awkward time for Thailand, which is due to take over the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN next week.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the lunch talks would explore "various possibilities" and that participants would assess whether "the situation is dangerous."

But ASEAN could be hampered by its bedrock principle of noninterference in domestic affairs of its 10 members, although it has bent that rule recently over Myanmar.

The grouping's efforts on Myanmar also received a setback when the country's junta said pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be detained until late May 2009, rather than through the end of 2008, as had been reported earlier.

The clarification came as the ASEAN foreign ministers "urged Myanmar to take bolder steps toward a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future."

A glimmer of hope for Suu Kyi's early release was raised on Sunday when the ministers thought they heard their Myanmar counterpart, Nyan Win, say at a dinner that the Nobel Peace laureate can be freed by December 2008.

But Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, who passed on the remarks to the media, clarified the next day that Nyan Win had been misheard, and that the detention will last until at least November 2009.

Despite ASEAN's frustrations with the junta, the regional grouping has taken the lead in calling for international aid to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar's coastal regions in May.

On Monday, it released a joint report of a disaster assessment conducted with the United Nations and the Myanmar government, which says the survivors of the cyclone need at least US$1 billion in aid over the next three years.

Also Tuesday, ASEAN ministers will meet with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea for wider discussions on regional security. On top of the agenda is likely to be North Korea's nuclear program.

The topic will take center-stage at another meeting on the sidelines on Wednesday between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - the participants in six-party nuclear talks.

It will be the highest-level meeting in the six-country negotiations, which began in 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program.

The meetings will culminate Thursday with the ASEAN Regional Forum, the premier security dialogue of Asia-Pacific between ASEAN and 16 other countries plus the European Union. It includes the United States and Russia.(**)

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.