From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: ASEAN: 'See No Evil'
Date: 27 Jul 92 19:00:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700283:000:5238
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 27 12:00:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: ASEAN: 'See No Evil'

/* Written  6:13 am  Jul 27, 1992 by apakabar in cdp:reg.indonesia */

Source: Washington Post, July 26, 1992

Southeast Asians, West At Odds Over Rights

By William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service

   MANILA, July 25 - Western countries today urged Southeast Asian
nations to take a firmer stand against human rights violations in the
region, particularly those committed by the ruling Burmese military
junta.
   While the West wants to increase pressure on the Burmese junta,
widely viewed as one of the world's worst violators of human rights, the
six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is resisting
all moves to impose sanctions on the military government and has emerged
as one of its leading defenders. ASEAN comprises Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines.
   Secretary of State James A. Baker III flew to Manila today after his
latest round of Middle East diplomacy to participate in meetings between
ASEAN foreign ministers and envoys of the group's seven main
industrialized trading partners. Besides the United States, these ASEAN
"dialogue partners" are Canada, the European Community, Australia, New
Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
   Groups in the United States, including the Congressional Human Rights
Caucus and Asia Watch, have urged Baker to raise human rights issues in
his talks with ASEAN leaders. Asia Watch cited close relations between
Thailand's armed forces and both the Burmese junta and Cambodia's
notorious Khmer Rouge guerrilla group. It also urged Baker to express
concern about Indonesia's failure to account for dead and missing
opposition activists in East Timor and in the province of Aceh.
   In meetings with ASEAN, officials of the United States, Canada and
Australia have strongly condemned the Burmese junta and called for
concerted pressure on it, only to hear ASEAN defend its policies of
"constructive engagement" and "quiet diplomacy," participants said.
   ASEAN and the Western states even disagree about what to call the
country. Australian, Canadian, British and U.S. officials used the
traditional name, Burma, in their speeches, while ASEAN officials tend
to use Myanmar, the name decreed by the junta in 1989.
   While the rift over the Burmese situation represents a relatively
minor exception to the harmony between ASEAN and its trading partners on
most issues, it encapsulates a larger divergence of views on human
rights in general.
   In a joint communique at the end of a foreign ministers' conference
Wednesday, ASEAN said environmental and human rights issues should be
left out of "economic and development cooperation." Human rights are
"governed by the distinct culture and history and socioeconomic
conditions in each country," it said.
   As ASEAN was deliberating this week, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese
opposition leader who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, began her fourth
year under house arrest  without charge or trial.
   The Burmese junta, made up of proteges of longtime dictator Ne Win,
took power in 1988 amid a bloody crackdown against democracy
demonstrators. In 1990, the opposition won 80 percent of the seats in a
parliamentary election, but the junta refused to cede power and jailed,
intimidated or drove into exile most of the winning candidates. Many
opponents of the junta have been killed or tortured, tens of thousands
of Burmese have been brutally pressed into forced labor as porters in
counterinsurgency campaigns, and more than 270,000 Muslims of the
Rohinga ethnic minority have fled to  Bangladesh to escape persecution
by troops.
   In a speech Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said it
was "clear that Burma's rulers are not contemplating the early
installation of a democratic government" and that the country's human
rights record remains "among the world's worst."
   U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert B. Zoellick told the ASEAN
ministers, "Burma is now exporting pain and death outside its borders in
staggering terms." Besides the refugees who have flooded into Bangladesh
and Thailand, he said, "Burma is also a primary source of heroin for
addicts around the world. . . . Isn't it time to say enough is enough?"
   In response, Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Romualdo Ong told
reporters, "We have a unique ASEAN approach to our esteemed neighbor,
and we plan to follow that track." He said, "Human rights are indeed a
universal problem, but when you assess individual human rights, it is
important to consider the local context."
   Ong said today that ASEAN is satisfied with "encouraging indications
of a more liberal tendency by the Myanmar authorities," including "the
release of a large number of political prisoners" and junta permission
for family members to visit Aung San Suu Kyi. He said she was "free to
leave anytime" on condition that she remain in exile.
   Ong said ASEAN views the Burmese junta as a "legitimate" and "legally
constituted" government. Regarding Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, he
said: "We don't like to stand in public judgment of a neighbor. . . . We
have to assume that the Burmese have their own reasons for keeping
things the way they are."