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THE
continued human-rights repression by the military regime
in Myanmar should be addressed by the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Senate minority
leader asserted on Tuesday, even as he called on its
member-countries to ratify the Asean Charter.
Noting
that the Asean Charter mandates the creation of a Human
Rights Commission, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the
purpose of this specific provision will be defeated if
nothing is done to compel Myanmar to go back to the
democratic track, hold free elections and release
opposition leaders from detention or house arrest.
“We have
to determine whether or not the Asean Charter may only
turn out to be a charade of words that
Myanmar
could ignore at its pleasure,” he said.
The
minority leader issued the statement following his
meeting with Ambassador Rosario Manalo, who was fielded
by the Philippine government to the Asean High-Level
Task Force on the Asean Charter. At their meeting,
Manalo and Pimentel discussed the salient points of the
Charter which has been forwarded by Malacañang to the
Senate for ratification.
Pimentel, a member of the five-man Committee on the
Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union, said Myanmar, under the rule
of a military junta, has proven itself unworthy of
membership in the Asean in view of the following:
1. Its
continued repression of the rights of the Burmese
people;
2. Its
callous disregard of the welfare of the victims of the
Cyclone Nargis, as manifested in its refusal to allow
humanitarian aid to freely flow into the country; and
3. Its
failure to adhere to its own rules in the matter of the
detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
supposed one-year house arrest has time and again been
extended by the ruling junta. The last extension was
ordered last week. She has been in detention for 12 of
the past 18 years, her party never having been allowed
to sit in parliament despite a landslide victory in the
1990 polls.
Pimentel
has presented two proposals to sanction the ruling
junta. First, Asean should expel
Myanmar from the regional grouping. And second, the United
Nations Security Council should use reasonable force to
compel the junta to accept humanitarian aid without
qualifications.
He also
assailed the military rulers for holding a sham
referendum—even when proper relief work has not yet been
delivered to the cyclone victims—on Myanmar’s new
constitution by not tolerating a free discussion of the
new fundamental law. He said this has further cast
doubts on the junta’s sincerity to take steps to restore
democracy and the liberties of the Burmese people.
“In any
event, the sad state of affairs in Myanmar should not be
allowed to continue. The human rights of the people of
Myanmar should be protected. And democracy should be
restored to the hapless land,” Pimentel said. |
