IPS:ASEAN & Human Rights

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Subject: IPS:ASEAN & Human Rights

/* Written  9:15 pm  Jul 31, 1994 by fbp@xxxxxxxxxxx in gn:reg.easttimor */
/* ---------- "IPS:ASEAN & Human Rights" ---------- */

/* Written  4:06 PM  Jul 31, 1994 by newsdesk in igc:ips.english */
/* ---------- "HUMAN RIGHTS: ASEAN Bridges Gap wit" ---------- */
       Copyright 1994 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
          Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

                      *** 28-Jul-94 ***

Title: HUMAN RIGHTS: ASEAN Bridges Gap with Western Allies

An Inter Press Service Feature

By Leah Makabenta

BANGKOK, Jul 28 (IPS) - The Association of South-east Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and its Western allies ended two days of talks here this week
with both sides giving a little on human rights and democratic
principles that have marred relations between them in the past.

ASEAN accuses Western countries of linking social standards such
as human rights, workers' rights and environmental issues with trade
talks, practices that verge on protectionism.

The group's so-called dialogue partners -- the United States,
Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the European
Union -- are also its major trading partners.

ASEAN's Western allies have been sharply critical of the regional
group, the world's most dynamic economies, for tolerating Burma's
human rights abuses.

Indonesia's alleged human rights violations in East Timor, the
former Portuguese colony annexed by Jakarta in 1976, have held up
agreement on a new pact of expanded economic cooperation between the
European Union and ASEAN.

Speaking on behalf of his ASEAN colleagues at the start of their
two-day talks Tuesday, Thai Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri said it
was time the two sides expanded their dialogue process by ''giving
due attention to cooperative projects which promote human and social
issues by according high priority to poverty reduction, productive
employment and environmental regeneration''.

While Prasong did not say whether social issues would cover human
and workers' rights, analysts saw it as a slight shift in ASEAN's
strict stance on linkages between labour rights and trade access.

And depending on who you were talking to, most of the world's
major powers who came to Bangkok with the intention of giving a fresh
international push for democratisation in Burma had considerably
softened their stance on South-east Asia's pariah regime.

Host Thailand, which was on the defensive all week for inviting a
representative of the Burmese junta to this year's ASEAN talks,
confidently announced the West had abandoned its policy of isolating
Burma and would start talking to Rangoon.

There were reports that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and
the European Union had acknowledged that isolation did not work and
that ASEAN's constructive engagement was ''the right answer''.

But EU officials denied there had been a change, saying their
policy of 'critical dialogue' remained.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, representing the EU
presidency, said he was prepared to meet Burmese Foreign Minister U
Ohn Gyaw to state the EU's conditions for normalising ties, but Ohn
Gyaw left Bangkok the day before the post-ministerial meeting.

The United States was resolutely alone in declining to embrace
ASEAN's previously condemned 'constructive engagement' policy.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord said sarcastically
the reported change of heart of some Western countries may be ''good
news for SLORC (the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the name
of the Rangoon regime) ... but this does not necessarily mean good
news for Suu Kyi''.

Whether it will be good news for the international community
depends on whether real progress is made, Lord added. He insisted
that the U. S. approach of isolating Burma was the most effective.

The issue was glossed over in the time-honoured ASEAN way of
avoiding confrontation and backing away from trouble by a compromise
proposal from Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans.

In a joint press conference of all 14 foreign ministers of ASEAN
and its dialogue partners, a so-called new approach was announced
which defined a set of collective 'benchmarks' as a condition for
improvement of Western relations with Burma.

This included the unconditional release of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, dialogues with political
opponents, access to political detainees for Red Cross and United
Nations monitoring teams, and real constitutional reform through full
and free participation, legal rights for minorities, cessation of
porterage, the repeal of political censorship laws and other
restrictions to political freedom and free expression.

But Joan Spero, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic,
business and agricultural affairs, made it clear Washington was
taking ''a different tactical approach'' from its Western colleagues
while expressing hope that it ''will be successful''.

Spero said the United States had other worries such as the
''serious outflow of narcotics'' from Burma. ''We will keep an eye on
(the new approach) and believe that the kind of benchmarks that Evans
has laid out make a lot of sense for that policy of theirs.''

Canada, which along with the European Union was the strongest in
calling for ''real progress'' on democracy and human rights in Burma,
said that while it will not engage in dialogues it was willing to
support and cooperate with others in their attempts.

Canadian Foreign Minister Andre Ouellet told another press
conference his government was ''frustrated'' by its monologues on the
Burma and believed dialogue might help improve the situation there.


''If there is monologue, there is no willingness to listen to what
is said and it will go nowhere .. others might be better
interlocutors of these dialogues and we accept this,'' he said.

But the 14 foreign ministers gathered in Bangkok backed away from
the East Timor issue in the interest of developing cordiality,
sitting stony-faced while Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas
delivered an angry tirade on what he insisted was a ''non-issue.''

Alatas denied Jakarta had pressured either Philippine or Thai
authorities into suppressing protests on East Timor. Indonesia had
only ''conveyed in clear terms to two friendly neighbours'' why it
would have been offended if no action had been taken. He denied this
constituted bullying or interference in Thai and Philippine affairs.

Said Alatas: ''There are values in ASEAN, non-interference in the
affairs and respect for the values of its neighbours, which have made
ASEAN great.''

''Twenty-seven years of painstaking efforts would be destroyed if
well-meaning but gullible non-governmental organisations subject to
manipulation of small groups of people who only represent themselves
hold what is not a seminar but a political campaign to interfere in
the affairs of Indonesia. It is in the common interest of ASEAN not
to allow this to happen,'' he added.

He called East Timor a ''17-year tragedy'' stemming from a bungled
decolonisation process by Portugal which had colonised the land for
400 years. He blamed the unrest there on a few people ''who failed 20
years ago to participate in the democratic decolonisation process''.

''They are the ones who brought in the arms, they are the ones who
are killing people in East Timor,'' Alatas said.

The next ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting is due to be held in
Karlsruhe, Germany, in September. Kinkel said he only hoped the East
Timor issue ''doesn't disturb our discussions''.

EU officials in Bangkok seemed intent on raising Europe's economic
and political profile in the region. A policy document circulated
here and described as designed to launch a radical rethink of EU
strategy towards Asia, indicates that East Timor is unlikely to
intrude in the discussions.

''The concept of the relationship between human rights, democracy
and development should be inspired by the assumption that economic
development could bring about the progressive construction of civil
society and thus improve the exercise of human rights, which in turn
could also be an important factor for development,'' the paper said.

This is consistent with the ASEAN argument that human rights and
democracy take the back seat to economic development and political
stability. (END/IPS/LM/LNH/94)


Origin: Manila/HUMAN RIGHTS/
                              ----

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