ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

by Salai Pi Pi | New Delhi — Burma's neighbouring countries, particularly India, should use the Bay of Bengal Sub-regional group (BIMSTEC) summit to pressure the Southeast Asian nation to free detained Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, an Indian Human Rights group said on Tuesday.

New Delhi based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) on Tuesday said India, being the largest democracy, should lead other Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries to urge Burma's military rulers to implement political reforms starting with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The ACHR's call came even as the seven-member group of BIMSTEC is scheduled to hold its 2nd Summit in the Indian capital New Delhi on November 13.

"India, Nepal and Sri Lanka should be pressing Myanmar [Burma] for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi at the meet," said Suhas Chakma, director of ACHR.

Burma's Prime Minister General Thein Sein, according to the junta's mouthpiece newspaper on Tuesday, will be arriving New Delhi on November 13 to attend the Sub-regional group's summit.

Suhas Chakma said India should use the opportunity of Thein Sein's visit to the country and urge for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 13 of the past 19 years.

According to the groupings rotating system of chairmanship, Burma will take over chairmanship of the group in 2009 from India, which is the current chairman.

While the rotating chairmanship is a consensus arrived at by all the seven nations based in an alphabetical order, Ramesh Ramachandran, a correspondent of the Asian Age newspaper in Delhi said, the chairmanship will need to come along with a certain degree of responsibility.

Burma as the rotating chairman, will need to prove that its internal crisis is under control, Ramachandran said.

However, the ACHR said Burma's presence in the grouping has brought down the image of other member countries, especially of India, the world's largest democracy, and its chairmanship will further reduce the credibility of the group.

"If Myanmar [Burma] takes over the BIMSTEC chair, the people in the region will lose faith on the group," Chakma said.

BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 with four Bay of Bengal nations - Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Burma joined the group in December 1997, while Bhutan and Nepal joined in 2003.

In August, the group held its tenth ministerial meeting in New Delhi and agreed to review the group's achievement and further discuss greater economic cooperation among the group during the 2nd Summit to be held on November 13, in New Delhi