Border dispute, Myanmar, top ASEAN ministers' talks

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers urged Thailand and Cambodia to show restraint in a border dispute, and urged Myanmar to free all political prisoners, as annual talks began Sunday night.

Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began their talks over dinner while two of its members, Thailand and Cambodia, were locked in an armed standoff over a border temple, and after rogue member Myanmar extended opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to "exert utmost efforts" to find a peaceful solution to their standoff, Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said after the dinner at a restaurant in the city-state's botanical gardens.

"Both sides affirmed that they would abide by their ASEAN and international obligations and exert their utmost efforts to find a peaceful solution to the issue," Yeo said in a statement.

More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers are stationed around a small Buddhist pagoda leading to the ruins of an 11th-century temple, where nearby land is claimed by both sides.

"We urged both sides to exercise utmost restraint and resolve this issue amicably in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and good neighbourliness," Yeo said.

The foreign ministers also expressed "deep disappointment" over the extension of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention and called for all political prisoners in the country to be freed, Yeo said.

"They repeated the call by ASEAN leaders for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees as part of Myanmar's national reconciliation process," he said.

Myanmar's ruling generals extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by one year on May 27. She has spent most of the past 18 years confined to her lakeside home in Myanmar's main city Yangon.

ASEAN has often been criticised for failing to act firmly against member Myanmar over human rights abuses and a lack of democratic progress.

Myanmar's junta should engage in "a meaningful dialogue with all political groups", Yeo said.

While the border dispute and Myanmar dominated the first night of the ministers' meeting, high on the official agenda is a new ASEAN charter which would create an EU-style economic block committed to democracy and human rights by 2015.

Efforts to get aid to about two million survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are also expected to feature prominently when talks continue on Monday.

Myanmar earned international contempt by refusing to allow a foreign-led relief effort when the May cyclone left 138,000 dead or missing.

ASEAN won praise for eventually bridging the gap between the junta and the outside world over cyclone relief efforts by taking the lead on a joint aid mission with the military authorities and the United Nations.

The mission is expected to release its full report on the humanitarian situation in Myanmar's devastated southern delta region here on Monday.

The temple standoff began after three Thai protesters were arrested on Tuesday for crossing a fence to reach the ancient ruins, which have been a source of tension between the neighbours for decades.

Defence officials from both countries plan to meet on the border on Monday to try to defuse the crisis.

Thai government representatives here said they could not discuss whether the countries' ministers would hold bilateral talks in Singapore.

"Any tension, any misunderstanding between and among member states is always an issue of concern for ASEAN," the bloc's secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said earlier Sunday.

He said the ministers were keen to see the matter resolved "as soon as possible."