Associated Press

Bangkok, May 4:

Military-ruled Myanmar, under pressure from the United States and other Western nations for its repression of democracy, may back away from the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a senior Thai official said today.

The United States and the European Community have been critical of Myanmar for its human rights record — including the detention of dissident Aung San Suu Kyi — and have threatened to boycott ASEAN meetings if it assumes the bloc’s rotating chairmanship next year.

Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said today that Myanmar declining the chairmanship is “one of the possibilities” being considered.

“No one would like to see the chairmanship becoming an obstacle for the functioning of ASEAN,” he said at a joint news conference with the US Deputy Secretary of State Robert B Zoellick. “Both governments have some frustrations about the lack of political change (in Myanmar),” said Zoellick after a one-hour meeting with Kantathi. “What we see throughout the world, even in places where people don’t expect it, like the Middle East, is a process of openness and democracy,” Zoellick said. “There’s no reason it can’t happen in Burma as well.”

Myanmar’s upcoming role at the head of the 10-member ASEAN has also drawn unprecedented criticism from within the bloc.