Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - ASEAN has expressed "deep disappointment" over Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, but the verbal swipe does not signal a major shift in attitude towards the junta, observers say.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been criticized in the past for its failure to act firmly against its renegade member, on Sunday issued one of its strongest statements yet on the issue.
"The foreign ministers expressed their deep disappointment that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's detention under house arrest had been extended by the Myanmar government," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said after hosting a dinner of the bloc's 10 foreign ministers.
Ministers repeated a call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees, while urging the junta to engage with her movement, which has been shut out of a much-criticized "roadmap to democracy."
Egoy Bans, spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition in the Philippines, said the comment was the latest in a series of jabs that ASEAN has made at the regime over the past two years.
ASEAN "is coming out strongly" over rights in Myanmar, Bans said, but added that although the bloc is talking tough, it has not matched its words with action.
"Concretely, we are not seeing a shift in the policy," he said. "Their diplomatic actions have always been very, very careful, and not reflective of the statements."
While the foreign ministers expressed "deep disappointment" on Sunday night, those words were removed in a final communiqué issued after formal talks the following day.
"I would say that they're still not going to interfere in the affairs of other countries," said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar, and now a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
K. Kesavapany, director of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said ASEAN's expression of disappointment was consistent with a pattern adopted over the past two years.
ASEAN has "taken a more proactive stance towards Myanmar because we do want to see a change there," he said.
The regional grouping pursues a controversial policy of "constructive engagement" with Myanmar, which is under European Union and United States sanctions over its human rights record.
Myanmar was also severely criticized internationally for its delay in allowing foreign aid into the country after a May 2-3 cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.
It belatedly allowed aid workers to enter under an arrangement forged with ASEAN and the United Nations.
On Monday, Myanmar formally ratified the ASEAN charter, under which its members commit "to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."
The charter, which still requires ratification by three of the bloc's members, aims to give ASEAN a legal framework and sets out principles and rules for members.
Wilson said it would "make a mockery of the whole exercise that ASEAN is going through with the charter" if the group had not issued a strong statement on Myanmar.
"So it's, in a way, a good start," he said.