KUALA LUMPUR: Myanmar has rejected an offer by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to open talks aimed at quelling
deadly communal violence there, the regional bloc's chief said on Tuesday.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan said he proposed setting up tripartite talks between the association,
the United Nations, and Myanmar's reformist government to prevent the violence
having a broader regional impact.
But he said Myanmar turned down
the offer to discuss the bloodshed in Rakhine state that has seen around 180
people killed since June in the restive west of the country.
"Myanmar believes it is
their internal matter, but your internal matter could be ours the next day if
you are not careful," he told reporters after delivering a speech at a
forum in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Fresh fighting in Rakhine state
this month saw another 88 killed and added to the thousands of homes torched,
with tens of thousands of minority Rohingya now living in overcrowded camps.
Rights groups fear the actual number killed could be much higher.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian
government, which has been lauded by Western nations for a series of democratic
reforms after decades of outright military rule, has imposed emergency rule in
the face of continued tension in the region.
Myanmar's 800,000-strong Rohingya
community are viewed as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh by the
government and many Burmese.
The Rohingya have long been
considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on
the planet.
- AFP/xq
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