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NEW YORK: Myanmar’s military rulers should
implement democratic reforms immediately as promised and avoid
greater international isolation, Secretary Alberto Romulo said
Tuesday.
“I believe it is time for them
to implement that roadmap to democracy they had promised 10, 11
years ago,” he told Agence France-Presse on the sidelines of the
UN General Assembly where US President George W. Bush announced new
sanctions against the tightly-ruled Southeast Asian state.
The move came as the ruling
military junta slapped a curfew on Myanmar’s main city Yangon
effective Wednesday and declared the entire city a military
“restricted” area, after days of mass street pro-democracy
protests.
Romulo said Myanmar must open up
to avoid greater international isolation.
Asked to comment on the US move
to tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the military regime
and their financial backers, Romulo said, “Whatever Myanmar
decides to do in terms of implementing the roadmap to democracy,
that is the answer.”
Myanmar and the Philippines are
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which
has taken a soft policy on Myanmar.
“As far as we are concerned,
they have been promising Asean that they will move on the roadmap to
democracy. That promise has been repeated so many times,” Romulo
said.
The Asean foreign ministers are
scheduled to meet today on the sidelines of the UN meeting, and the
latest developments in Myanmar are expected to be among the key
topics of discussions.
They are also scheduled on the
same day to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is
expected to press for Asean leverage to end the crackdown in Myanmar
and to initiate genuine democratic reforms.
The other Asean members are
Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
--AFP
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