More Action Needed Over Burma: MPs tell ASEAN

Source: Agence France-Presse

The ASEAN bloc should engage in more action and less talk to help bring about democratic change in military-ruled Burma, the region's legislators and non-government groups said Friday.

Delegates at a forum organised by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Democracy in Burma were told that the 10-nation grouping should recognise it has the economic clout to pressure Myanmar rather than just lamenting it has limited influence there.

"ASEAN members must make some serious decisions... ASEAN can no longer be used by the military junta as cover for their economic incompetence and brutal political oppression," Singapore legislator Charles Chong told the forum.

"If ASEAN, after 40 years of existence, cannot muster the political will to work together and with the UN in order to resolve this urgent matter, then ASEAN is fundamentally at risk."

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