NEWS- Human rights are a concern t

[BurmaJapan@xxxxxxx]

Editorial - Bangkok Post


 Human rights are a concern to all

                                     Hardly had the presses cooled than
several of our neighbours were
                                     again in full cry against the
annual US report on human rights.
                                     Beijing said the section on China
could hurt US-China relations.
                                     Vietnam was indignant to be
criticised in a report written in a
                                     country which still has racial
discrimination and a high crime rate.
                                     Burma was outraged that Washington
failed to understand how
                                     effective the country?s transition
to democracy has been. 

                                     The cries of outrage from such
countries have become predictable
                                     in the 20-plus years that the US
State Department has been
                                     compiling them. It is tempting, in
fact, to say that a country?s
                                     human rights problem is in direct
proportion to its pretended
                                     paroxysm against the report. That
wouldn?t be quite true, though.
                                     Some nations with horrendous
records are smart enough Ñ or
                                     cynical enough Ñ to stay quiet when
the annual report is released. 

                                     Nevertheless, the bluster against
the State Department tome is
                                     almost as important as the book
itself. A favourite cry of dictators is
                                     that criticism by foreigners is an
intrusion into domestic affairs. This
                                     is nonsense of the first order. A
military invasion such as Burma?s
                                     occupation of the Moei River island
is an intrusion. But criticism is
                                     nothing more than a sign of
concern. Criticism of Burma?s human
                                     rights violations, for example, is
no more an intrusion into its
                                     domestic affairs than trading with
Burma. 

                                     If truth be known, most academics
and journalists have come to
                                     value the US human rights reports.
The annual book has flaws, to
                                     be certain. For one thing, US law
forbids the reports from carrying a
                                     section on the United States. For
another, it is ruthlessly
                                     ethno-centric in many of its
sections on racial discrimination,
                                     women?s rights and other areas. 

                                     The point is that the report is
consistent, and uses the same
                                     standards for every nation. 

                                     This year?s report on Thailand is
tough, and fair. It begins by
                                     summarising the worst human rights
problems in the country last
                                     year. 

                                     According to the State Department,
these are extrajudicial killings
                                     by police, lack of government
transparency, and failure to close the
                                     economic gap between urban and
rural people. The report says that
                                     violence against women and
children, illegal and child labour and
                                     prostitution remain serious
problems. 

                                     These are the issues that human
rights advocates talked about last
                                     year. 

                                     The report discusses these and
other issues in excruciating detail
                                     Ñ 7,200 words, or 10 times the
length of this article. Nit-pickers can
                                     have their fill in places. The
country is implicitly criticised for not
                                     having juries decide criminal
trials, for example, an obvious
                                     American bias. But the lengthy
report contains deep insight without
                                     a single major clanger. 

                                     One must wonder, again, about the
noise from Rangoon, Hanoi and
                                     elsewhere. The dry, factual reports
on the way things are done in
                                     each country contain no rhetoric,
no direct criticism. The reader is
                                     left to draw his own conclusions.
Burma?s leaders claim they are
                                     moving towards democracy. If so, a
comparison of human rights
                                     during each of the past few years
will help gauge the progress. 

                                     Burma is not alone in dealing with
its human rights abuses by
                                     denial and stonewalling. But it is
of particular concern to Thailand
                                     that it does so. Last week?s
extremely tense standoff between Thai
                                     and Burmese forces at Tak province
again exposed the dangers of
                                     dealing with a dictatorship that
need not consult its people. The
                                     annual US human rights reports are
a good measure of rights
                                     around the world and here at home.