Rudd laments human rights in Burma

TONY EASTLEY: For years ASEAN the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has struggled for relevancy, much of it because ASEAN countries have been reluctant to criticise fellow members.

This latest meeting in Hanoi will see the United States and Australia participate on the side-lines via the East Asia Summit and both countries are keen to apply the blowtorch to Burma.

In Canberra Radio Australia's Linda Mottram has been speaking to the Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

LINDA MOTTRAM: How difficult an issue do you think Burma is for the region, for ASEAN in particular and for the region more widely?

KEVIN RUDD: I think for the members of ASEAN it has been a constant challenge. Certainly in my discussions in recent years with leaders and ministers from South East Asian countries Burma represents for them a continuing real challenge.

The absence of democratic norms within Burma are not consistent with where most within the region want to go over time.

Secondly the upcoming elections still represent something which falls far short of democratic norms.

It's pretty basic when you have got still dozens of political parties unable to participate in the election, 2,000 political prisoners still in jail, when you have Aung San Suu Kyi still under house arrest, when you have no international monitors of the election, when you have no foreign media presence.

I would suggest this probably falls short of most people's idea of a democratic norm. For us therefore in Australia this is a major challenge for the region for the future and we have got to continue to apply maximal diplomatic pressure to the regime in Rangoon to improve.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Does that mean expanding sanctions on the regime?

KEVIN RUDD: It means applying all practical measures to bring about concerted pressure on the regime.

We cannot simply accept what's happened in Burma in recent times as simply normal. It's not. And therefore we cannot simply lay down the baton as if all that can be done has been done.

Of course at the same time we in Australia continue to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Burma particularly in the areas of maternal and child health where Burma frankly has the worst numbers in all of South East Asia. And no young kid, no young baby, no little child deserves an early death because they happen to live under a non-democratic regime.

TONY EASTLEY: Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd speaking with Linda Mottram in Canberra.


(2010-10-29/abc.net.au)