BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday that his Myanmar counterpart had denied that the junta was pulling out of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

He told a press conference that he had asked Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win about the UN labour agency's report last week that Yangon was ready to withdraw from the ILO.

'He said no, no, no, it's just the opinion of one person. They are not leaving,' Mr Thaksin said, after meeting his counterparts from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam at an economic summit. -- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

NEW YORK - THE United Nations expert on human rights in Myanmar has slammed Asean nations, as well as the United States and European Union, for isolating the totalitarian regime instead of engaging it to bring about reforms.
 

Mr Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said it was a mistake to deny Myanmar the chairmanship of Asean next year, a censure that also reduced Yangon's accountability to the international community.

Asian leaders and the West were 'too erratic' in their dealings with Myanmar, he said on Friday.

They must instead find a more consistent and coordinated approach to engage the regime rather than complain about the confinement of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy, he said.

'I don't think there is much of a strategy there,' Mr Pinheiro, a Brazilian expert on human rights, told The Straits Times, denouncing 'megaphone diplomacy'.

He acknowledged that he was increasingly outspoken because his mandate was ending in spring, and 'in my last moments I am saying all the things I feel I must'.

Myanmar's military government on Saturday said it would resume a key meeting to draft a Constitution, the first step on the country's self-set path to democracy, state radio and TV reported.

The national convention would resume on Dec 5 after a hiatus of more than eight months, it was reported.

The government adjourned the meeting on March 31, saying the 1,000-plus delegates - including farmers and businessmen - needed to return to work, Associated Press reported.

Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, a leading junta leader who chairs the National Convention Convening Commission, said the meeting would adopt guidelines agreed upon at the last session when delegates had closed-door talks on power-sharing involving the judicial and executive sectors.

The convention is the first step in the junta's seven-stage road map towards democracy that is supposed to lead to free elections, but no timetable has been set to complete the task.

However, the military junta has failed most of the litmus tests in human rights, imprisoning more than 1,000 dissidents and taking a harder line towards civil and political liberties.

The junta, which took power in 1962, is also considering withdrawing from the International Labour Organisation.

UN relief agencies faced considerable problems, 'with the authorities imposing onerous fees, bureaucratic hurdles and extensive restrictions on both travel to project sites and the import of supplies and equipment', said a hard-hitting Oct 21 report on Myanmar by the UN Secretariat.

The UN Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria withdrew recently, taking with it nearly US$100 million (S$169 million) in pledged assistance.

UN relations have also deteriorated with Yangon's refusal to permit Mr Pinheiro or the UN special envoy to Myanmar, Mr Razali Ismail, to visit the country since 2003.

UN member states have gingerly begun applying pressure to military and despotic regimes, permitting human rights committees to criticise Belarus, North Korea and Zimbabwe.

BPisik@aol.com