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ASEAN firesquad troika proposal watered down |
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July 26, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - Plans for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations diplomatic fire squad to react faster to regional crises hit a brick wall Tuesday after the 10 states disagreed over how much power it should have. It was blow to the efforts of the outgoing chair of ASEAN, Thailand, to expand the group's role and relax its rule that member states don't meddle in other's internal affairs. Ministers holding their annual meeting in Bangkok adopted only a watered down version of a Thai proposal to authorize the rotating chair to call a taskforce of three ministers - or troika - in case of events that threaten peace and stability in the region. "The troika is not a mechanism to deal within, it's to deal with outside," Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said on the second day of the 33rd annual ASEAN ministers' meeting in Bangkok. "It's a mechanism to represent the 10 foreign ministers, but they need to have the consent of the 10 foreign ministers," he said. The insistence by Myanmar, also known as Burma, on staving off outside interference in its affairs was not a surprise. The military-ruled country is heavily criticized by international groups for its iron hand on dissenters, and neighboring Thailand has said drug trafficking by former ethnic rebels there pose a regional security threat. Kobsak Chutikul, director-general of economic affairs at the Thai Foreign Ministry, conceded that some members, including Thailand, had wanted "more flexibility" for the troika to judge situations by themselves. "What we have is better than nothing," Kobsak said. "It's something to fall back on." Ministers agreed that the chair of ASEAN could call the troika for consultations on an issue, but could only act on it after a consensus among all 10 - including the country in question. That leaves the troika with virtually no independent room for maneuver ASEAN set up a troika once before to bring warring parties together, after a coup in Cambodia in 1997 led by the current Prime Minister Hun Sen. But when East Timor was racked by violence after it voted for independence from ASEAN member Indonesia last year, ASEAN lacked consent from the disputing parties and took no action. That inaction galvanized critics of ASEAN, which was also found wanting during the Asian economic crisis that effected all its members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In response, ministers have this week urged more regional cooperation, not only in the traditional areas of trade and investment, but also in fighting transnational crimes like drug trafficking, human smuggling and the arms trade. But the troika proposal has won over few ASEAN governments, reflecting the reluctance of all countries, except the most democratic ones, Thailand and the Philippines, to at least discuss internal issues if they affect neighboring states. Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab said the troika could be used to address transnational problems like haze from forest fires - that has in recent years spread from Indonesia across Southeast Asia - and drug trafficking. But he ruled out involvement in the sectarian violence that has killed more than 4,000 people in the last 18 months on Indonesia's Maluku islands, despite calls from Christian leaders there for international intervention. "Maluku is solely an internal problem," he said. |