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SINGAPORE: Australia has reiterated calls for Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi after the junta ratified an ASEAN charter setting principles of human rights, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Wednesday.
Smith told reporters at a ministerial gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) here that he met his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win on Tuesday and repeated calls for free and fair elections.
"Yesterday I had a conversation with Myanmar Foreign Minister Win and I made all of the points to him that I have made publicly," Smith said.
"Australia very much urges Myanmar to return to a democratic state.
"We very much want to see Myanmar conduct an election which is full, free and fair, where all political players including Aung San Suu Kyi have participation and where the outcome reflects the will of the Myanmar people."
Democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past 18 years since winning a 1990 election which the generals have never recognised.
The government has vowed to hold elections next year under a new constitution dismissed by the opposition as a "sham" designed to cement the generals' grip on power.
Widely condemned as a serial rights abuser, the military government on Monday formally ratified an ambitious new ASEAN charter which sets principles of democracy and human rights for the bloc's 10 member states.
But analysts said the gesture was symbolic and saw no sign Myanmar’s government was preparing a true transition to democracy.
Asked how Nyan Win had responded to his calls for free elections, Smith said: "It's best described as the usual Myanmar reaction."
He said Nyan Win was "very gratefully appreciative" of Australian humanitarian assistance after Cyclone Nargis, which left about 138,000 people dead or missing in early May.
Smith said Australia has committed an extra US$29 million to Myanmar cyclone relief, almost doubling its aid effort since the May 2 storm.
Myanmar initially refused to allow foreign relief experts into the country but agreed to partially open its doors under an ASEAN-led aid effort.
"I made the point to him that whilst we were disappointed by the refusal of Myanmar to allow international access in the first instance we were very pleased with ASEAN's efforts in conjunction with the United Nations and Myanmar that had seen the delivery of international assistance," Smith said.
ASEAN released a report Monday saying that rebuilding Myanmar's cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions of survivors will cost US$1 billion over the next three years.
- AFP/yb
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