Indonesia to ratify ASEAN charter

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JAKARTA, Oct 8 (Internet): Indonesia is to sign up to a charter committing Southeast Asian nations to the principles of democracy and human rights, its foreign ministry said Wednesday.
A special committee from the House of Representatives has determined to ratify the agreement, ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.
Indonesia is the last member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that has not ratified the charter, after the Philippines signed up Tuesday.
Faizasyah said the charter would strengthen the regional bloc, often dismissed as a talking shop which fails to confront human rights abuses in member countries like military-ruled Myanmar.
Myanmar's ratification was one of the reasons Indonesia was slow to sign up, he said.
"At first, we felt that if countries like Myanmar are not obliged to comply with what they sign, then ratifying the charter would be worthless," he said.