ASEAN says "SORRY PEOPLES OF BURMA" (2)

Asian leaders reject calls for Myanmar sanctions

        SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Asian leaders on Wednesday again ruled out
punishing military-run Myanmar with sanctions despite its bloody crackdown on
dissent, saying their influence over the junta was negligible.
   Southeast Asian nations plus their six regional dialogue partners, at the
end of a summit here, also said punitive measures would only reinforce the
junta's isolation and would not speed up the process of democratic reforms.
   "We have not been in favor of sanctions on Myanmar -- neither any of the
ASEAN countries, nor any of the Asian countries," host Singapore Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong said at a closing press conference.
   "Our influence on Myanmar is negligible. Our trade with them is negligible,"
he said of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which met here
earlier this week before Wednesday's wider East Asia Summit talks.
   Lee said that among the 10-nation bloc, only Thailand had significant trade
with Myanmar -- in the form of natural gas imports much needed by Bangkok.
   ASEAN has come under increasing international pressure, especially from the
United States and the European Union, to rein in its errant member and punish it
for September's violence.
   Myanmar sent this week's summits into disarray when it refused to allow UN
envoy Ibrahim Gambari to brief the Asian leaders on the situation in the former
Burma -- forcing ASEAN into an embarrassing last-minute cancellation.
   But Lee described Myanmar's intransigence as "one of the growing pains and
the roadblocks which we have to deal with as a new and growing organisation."
   "It is not easy to resolve... it is something which we have confronted,
discussed and will have to take in our stride," he added.
   The East Asia Summit brings together the ASEAN bloc with Australia, India,
Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and China -- Myanmar's close ally, which Lee
said would never condone sanctions.
   "China is not going to agree. They have made their position quite clear," he
told reporters.
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