Burma Supports Asean Charter

Burma gave its full backing Monday to a landmark Southeast Asian charter that will create an agency to review the region's human rights after drafters took out references to punishing violators.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations approved the regional constitution, which will be signed by their countries' leaders at an annual summit Tuesday.

Burma, one of the 10 members of Asean, was pleased with the charter?€”which took 2 1/2 years to seal?€”despite calls for a human rights arm that could focus on abuses by its junta, Burma's senior diplomat Aung Bwa told The Associated Press.

"We have a very good charter. I think everybody should be happy. It's quite balanced," Aung Bwa said in an interview, adding he didn't believe Burma's internal problems should be the subject of intense scrutiny at the four-day summit.

The long-overdue Asean Charter is aimed at formally turning the 40-year-old organization?€”often derided as a powerless talk shop?€”into a rules-based legal entity. That means Asean can sue and be sued, and will be held accountable for all the treaties and agreements it signs.

The charter still needs to be ratified by parliaments of member countries, a process that will take a year.

"It's a good move to give substance to Asean after 40 years of our existence. It will change from an informal body, a loose organization, into one with a legal perspective," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

One of the most significant pledges in the charter is to set up a regional human rights body. Critics note that it will have limited impact, given that it will not be able to punish governments that violate human rights of their citizens.

"I'm not sure if it will have teeth but it will certainly have a tongue," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said, referring to the agency's right to admonish and criticize violators. "It will certainly have moral influence if nothing else. But these are details for the future."

An obvious candidate for discussion under the human rights body would be Burma, whose military-ruled junta used troops and police to crush peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in late September, killing at least 15 people.

The junta's actions have greatly embarrassed Asean, which is under pressure from the West and its own people to force change in the isolated Southeast Asian.

A glimmer of hope for democracy in Burma has been raised by the recent efforts of UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who met with junta leader Sen-Gen Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after the September crackdown.

The junta has indicated it will restart the process of national reconciliation.

Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein, who will attend the summit, is expected to sign the charter, now that negotiators have watered it down by dropping earlier recommendations to consider sanctions, including possible expulsion, in cases of serious breaches of the covenant by member nations.

A copy of the charter seen by The Associated Press states that any such breaches would be referred to Asean heads of state "for decision."

Asean was founded during the Cold War years as an anti-communist coalition, eventually evolving into a trade and political bloc. It consists of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Asean leaders will meet with leaders of China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand for a second summit on Wednesday. This session will be given a briefing by Gambari on Burma.

Meanwhile nine international students from a local university staged a small protest against Burma's junta near the summit venue.

Dressed in red T-shirts that read, "We pursue peace, justice and democracy for Burma," the students each carried a candle as they walked down a main street in groups of three.

"I've been reading about the situation in Burma, the crackdown and violence, the repression of civil society and the monks," said Pia Muzaffar, 22, a British student. "With the news that the Burmese generals would be in Singapore, I really felt that I should try and do something because I want to send the message that the world hasn't forgotten Burma."