Reject This Junta on All Fronts

Despite opposition from Western powers, the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations has opened the door for Myanmar, formerly Burma, to join the regional alliance. Myanmar will have to wait until Cambodia and Laos, the other nonmember countries in the region, are ready to join, probably next summer. But even delayed entry is too generous for Myanmar, which now has ASEAN observer status.

Whatever its commercial ties with Western companies, the military junta that rules in Yangon, the former Rangoon, should be excluded. Only agreement to restore the fairly elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, would make Myanmar deserving of ASEAN membership. And the generals are moving in the wrong direction, having again placed Suu Kyi under house arrest in all but name this week. She was forced to remain in her family compound during a pro-democracy demonstration. The government claimed it could not guarantee her safety if she left.

The refusal of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, to hand over power has resulted in its isolation--economic and political--by the international community. A number of European and U.S. companies have voluntarily pulled their investments out of Myanmar, and President Clinton specifically criticized the SLORC during his recent visit to neighboring Thailand.

Yet some Western investors remain, maintaining that economic development will open the way to democracy. A partially completed and controversial natural gas pipeline project of the French-owned oil company Total and Unocal, an American company, feeds badly needed foreign currency to the SLORC. Human rights activists have accused the project of leading to forced relocation of villagers, environmental degradation and conscripted labor.

A Unocal spokesman said of its investment, “What you’re asking us to determine is the legitimacy of a government. That is not our job. That is the job of professional diplomats.” Not exactly. Six years ago, Suu Kyi’s movement was voted in by the people of Myanmar. Diplomats, businesses and regional organizations like ASEAN should honor that fact by rejecting relations with the junta.