Asean FMs to meet in New York on Burma

Asean, which has Burma as a member, will discuss Thursday over the ongoing volatile situation in Burma with a hope to see peace in the junta-ruled country.

"We would discuss this matter within the Asean, we all want to see peace," said Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram.

The foreign ministers of the 10 member regional grouping were in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly along with their leaders.

The Asean also would meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday with the Burma issue on the table.

The meeting would take place amid tension in Burma as more than 100,000 people and Buddhist monks staged street protest against the military junta. The Burmese army reportedly deployed troops into Rangoon and signed to crackdown the protest.

The Asean, however, has not yet directly communicated to raise its concerns with the generals in Burma, Nitya said.

Thailand earlier issued a statement to express concern over the possible violence in the neighboring country and prepared to evacuate some 300 Thai nationals from the country.

"The Royal Thai Government is monitoring closely the situation in Myanmar.  As a fellow ASEAN member country and a close neighbour of Myanmar (Burma), we sincerely hope that there will be peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar," said the statement posted at the foreign ministry's website on Tuesday evening.

During the general discussion session at the UN assembly, US President George W Bush announced to impose more sanction against the Burmese junta.

The US would impose economic sanction to leaders of the junta and their financial backers and would expand visa ban on people responding for human right violations as well as their family members and more economic sanction, he said.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19 year reign of fear," Bush said.

"Basic freedom of speech, assembly and worship are severely restricted. Ethnic minorities are prosecuted. Forced child labor, human trafficking and rape are common," he said at the UN assembly.

The protest in Burma began with angry of fuel price hike in August when some hundreds people launched a series of street protests before the monks came out.

Meanwhile in Rangoon, the military government of Burma imposed a dusk-till-dawn curfew in its capital Rangoon Wednesday to crack its whip against a daily monks-led mass protests.

The junta will also restrict street protests in Rangoon and Mandalay for 60 days, beginning Wednesday, after declaring the two cities as "restricted zones," AHN online reported.

Armed soldiers and riot police are in the capital to enforce the 9pm-to-5am curfew and a ban on public assembly also announced on Tuesday through loudspeakers mounted on trucks.

At least 200 armed soldiers and riot police have been dispatched to the capital on Tuesday night, after thousands of Buddhist monks and civilian sympathizers ended a prayer and protest march in Rangoon's streets.

Thousands of monks have been staging daily street rallies since the past week defying an existing government ban on the assembly of groups of five people. The peaceful rallies are the biggest since the 1988 pro-democracy protests that was crushed by the military.

by Supalak G Khundee

The Nation, New York