ASEAN envoy cuts short Burma visit

24 March 2006 (AFP) - A special ASEAN envoy abruptly cut short a trip to Myanmar aimed at pressing the junta over democratic reforms without meeting detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, security sources and diplomats said Friday.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar left Myanmar Friday night, ending his long-delayed visit to the military-run country one day early.

"He's going home tonight. As far as we know he met the foreign minister and prime minister. He's not going to meet Suu Kyi," one Yangon-based diplomat said.

Airport sources also told AFP Syed Hamid left Myanmar late Friday afternoon. "(Syed Hamid) is another one who would have been disappointed," another diplomat told AFP.   Earlier in the day Syed Hamid held talks with Prime Minister Soe Win during his mission to check on the country's reform efforts amid global criticism of the junta's rights abuses.

Myanmar, which joined the grouping in 1997, agreed at last year's ASEAN summit to invite Syed Hamid in January. But the visit apparently stalled over the envoy's insistence on meeting the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last 16 years in jail or under house arrest.

"This mission is the beginning of a process to build a bridge between ASEAN and Myanmar. If the envoy insisted on meeting her (Aung San Suu Kyi) immediately, the mission would be doomed to failure," said a Western diplomat in Yangon. "The term of the mission is to evaluate the process of democratization," he said, adding he was skeptical whether the envoy would have been able to see any members from Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD).

Speaking before his abrupt departure, one analyst said that without meeting the pro-democracy leader, Syed Hamid's visit could end up being nothing more than "window-dressing".

"Myanmar did not invite him. ASEAN forced Myanmar to make the invitation because Myanmar was giving a bad name to ASEAN," said Asda Juyanama, Thailand 's former ambassador to the United Nations.

"Myanmar does not realize that what's going on inside the country is negatively affecting the image of ASEAN. If the envoy just talks to the government, the visit may end up being sort of window-dressing. It may look good in terms of the publicity for Myanmar," he said.

The military, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has spelled out a "road map" for democracy, including talks on a new constitution, but Aung San Suu Kyi's party has boycotted the process, which critics have called a sham. The junta again suspended constitutional talks in January after just two months of deliberation, dashing any hopes of ending the process this year and deepening international frustration over the lack of reforms.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly said that the international community would not regard the constitutional process as credible if Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD does not take part.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the result of national elections won by the NLD. While ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states, the bloc has become more vocal in line with censure from the United States , European Union and United Nations.

The United States has a total ban on Myanmar 's exports while the European Union has more targeted measures such as a travel ban on the junta, an arms embargo and a ban on investment in state companies.

In December, the junta again extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by six months, and US President George W. Bush, travelling in India earlier this month, called on all nations to seek the release of the 60-year-old pro-democracy leader.

Along with Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations estimates that more than 1,100 political prisoners are detained in Myanmar -- one of the poorest and most isolated nations in the world.

Syed Hamid will report on his mission at the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s meeting of foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali in April, Malaysia 's foreign ministry said.