AP

Posted: 2007-12-13 04:50:37

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – As Thailand heads toward Dec. 23 elections, the leader of the most popular political party proposed Thursday that the country host an international summit to resolve the Myanmar crisis if he becomes prime minister.

Samak Sundaravej, head of the People’s Power Party, said Thailand should hold a conference modeled after six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Polls show that PPP is likely to win the most seats in Thailand’s 480-seat parliament.

Foreign affairs have been a non-issue during the campaign, but Samak said in an interview with AP Television News that as head of government he would propose multiparty talks with Myanmar, also known as Burma, which sparked global outrage after violently suppressing pro-democracy protests in September.

In addition to Thailand and Myanmar, he said they should use Singapore, the United States, France, Japan and China, including countries that he thought could influence Myanmar because of investment and trading ties.

“Let’s talk. Let them (the junta) know that they can’t live like that in the world,” said Samak, a 72-year-old veteran politician known as a right-winger with a sharp tongue.

Samak said his approach would be “soft pressure” on Myanmar, since economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other countries have failed to coax reforms.

Myanmar and Thailand are both members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has been criticized for failing to take a tough stance against Myanmar.

The junta’s troops quashed a pro-democracy movement in September by opening fire on protesters led by Buddhist monks.

The junta says 15 people were killed but a U.N. human rights investigator says he determined at least 31 people were killed, 650 people remained in custody and another 74 were still missing.

Thailand’s election will be the first since a September 2006 coup deposed then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Thaksin remains popular among rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. His ruling party was dissolved but then regrouped as the People’s Power Party, which vows to continue Thaksin’s policies of low-cost health care and debt suspension for the poor.