RIGHTS-BURMA: Rohingya Issue Figures in Regional Summit
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
CHA-AM, Thailand, Feb 26 (IPS) – Burma’s military regime has set a tough challenge for regional leaders to grapple with when they gather for a summit over the weekend in this resort town south of Bangkok.
The issue – a regional solution to help the Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing years of oppression in Burma – is threatening to overshadow other pressing concerns to be addressed during a pivotal summit of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Leaders of the 10-member regional bloc were to have concentrated most of their energies on the makeover they are giving ASEAN, which was formed in 1967 to stop the spread of communism during the height of the Cold War. The 14th ASEAN summit being held here is the first since the coming into force, last December, of the ASEAN charter, making the bloc a rules-based entity.
‘’The world will take ASEAN more seriously now because we are now living under a charter; it demands compliance,’’ Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of ASEAN, told a gathering of foreign correspondents on Wednesday evening in the Thai capital. ‘’Because, when you commit, your commitment is sanctified by law.’’
The summit’s agenda includes over 30 key documents to be signed as part of a blueprint to create an ASEAN Community by 2015, enabling this region, which is home to 570 million people, to talk with one voice on security, economic, social and cultural issues.
The global economic downturn – and the region’s response – is also up for discussion by the leaders who come from the 10 countries that range from the wealthy to those burdened by poverty. The members of the bloc include Brunei, Burma (or Myanmar), Cambodia,Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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