Myanmar 'badly out of step' with rule of law: Rice

Rice attended a ministerial gathering yesterday of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) which spent considerable time on Myanmar, which is under US and EU sanctions over its human rights record.     

"The Asean charter aspires to rule of law, human rights, development of more pluralistic political systems, integration into the international community of states and Burma is out of step, badly out of step," she said.     

The regional grouping pursues a controversial policy of "constructive engagement" with Myanmar, a military-run nation formerly known as Burma.     

The junta was severely criticised for its delay in allowing foreign aid into the country after a May 2-3 cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.     

It belatedly allowed aid workers to enter under an arrangement forged with Asean and the United Nations.     

"You wonder how can the international commmunity stand by and allow that to happen," Rice said.     

"I give a lot of credit to Asean for developing the mechanism for assistance and for speeding up assistance after a period of time and becoming a kind of an international clearinghouse, if you will, for contact with Burma," she said.     

"That was a useful role, but it should never had happened in the first place," Rice said.     

"Now the question is, given the slight opening that this has provided, is there a way to move Burma to a political track that would finally make something of what is right now a kind of mockery, which is this 'roadmap to democracy' which is going nowhere," Rice said.