ASEAN HAS NO PROVISION TO EXPEL MYANMAR

HANOI, May 26 (Bernama) -- Asean has no provision to suspend or expel
Myanmar from the 10-member South-East Asia grouping, its secretary-general
Surin Pitsuwan said Tuesday.

He said such tough actions involved political decisions that must be
referred to the political leaders.

"We don't have any provision to suspend or eject any member. That needs to
be discussed by the leaders," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Ninth
Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) here.

The earliest Asean leaders will gather will be in October for the 15th
Summit in Thailand.

Surin was asked to comment on the call by the Asean Inter-Parliamentary
Myanmar Caucus (Aipmc) to suspend or impose sanctions on Myanmar if the
country's military regime continues to detain its democracy leader and Nobel
Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Aipmc parliamentarians strongly call on Asean to stop protecting Myanmar's
regime and instead remove them from the grouping until and unless Aung San Suu
Kyi is free and genuine efforts to begin national reconciliation are underway,"
Aipmc said Tuesday.

The call for action was raised after the junta put the detained democracy
icon on trial on a charge of harbouring an American man who swam to her
heavily-guarded home.

On that charge, she faces up to five years in detention.

Surin said concerns and frustrations over the situation in Myanmar had been
expressed at the highest level, not only in the region but also at the
international level, including at ASEM.

"I hope something good will prevail, with transparency and confidence
to resolve the issue," he said, but declined to confirm if the Myanmar issue
would be included in the Chairman's Statement at the end of the two-day
gathering of foreign ministers from 45 countries.

Last week, Asean issued a rare statement expressing its grave concern over
the move by the country's military junta to try Suu Kyi, and reminded the
Myanmar government that Asean leaders had called for her immediate release.

Asked if he had expressed the concern with Myanmar's Foreign Minister Major
General Nyan Win, who is also here, Surin said he did not.

"I did not meet him but some other ministers might have done that," the
former Thai foreign minister said.
-- BERNAMA