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Asia marks U.N. Human Rights Day wi



Subject: Asia marks U.N. Human Rights Day with protests

Asia marks U.N. Human Rights Day with protests
07:44 a.m. Dec 10, 1998 Eastern

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Asia marked U.N. Human Rights Day on Thursday
with protests highlighting dissident arrests in China, alleged abuses in
Indonesia and the plight of women in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

About 20 fist-waving Hong Kong human rights activists marched through the
territory and called on China to honour two U.N. human rights covenants that
it has signed.

``Live up to human rights covenants! Release dissidents!'' the protesters
chanted, raising placards as they marched to the Hong Kong government
headquarters.

In Beijing, Chinese President Jiang Zemin pledged to ``push forward progress
on human rights and fully safeguard the democratic rights and freedom of the
Chinese people,'' the official Xinhua news agency said.

A Hong Kong-based human rights group said despite the signing of the
covenants, Chinese police have arrested or summoned for questioning 29
dissidents since November 30 for trying to set up an opposition party. Ten
remain in custody.

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, thousands of protesters, ranging from
women's organisations to an East Timorese pro-independence group, took to
the streets to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

The protesters demanded a government investigation into past human rights
abuses and some students demanded that former President Suharto go on trial.

Suharto, who stepped down in May, has been widely accused of violating human
rights during his 32-year autocratic rule.

A top U.N. official said the rights of many Sri Lankan women were being
violated as a result of the country's long war between government troops and
Tamil Tiger rebels.

Activists organised rallies across Pakistan highlighting fears that the
rights of women and non-Moslem minorities would be violated by a government
plan to make an Islamic code the country's supreme law.

Aung San Suu Kyi, head of Myanmar's struggling democracy movement, urged
rights defenders in a dramatic videotaped statement made public this week to
continue their efforts and not give up hope.

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been forced by the military regime to
live in semi-isolation at her home in Yangon.

The mouthpiece of Vietnam's Communist Party reprinted a letter by party
General Secretary Le Kha Phieu calling for ``measures to prevent those who
take advantage of 'human rights and democracy' to interfere in the internal
affairs and sovereignty'' of Vietnam.

The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, in a statement released
on Thursday, said it had reports that a number of Vietnamese political and
religious prisoners were critically ill due to harsh detention.

South Korean human rights activists held a rally at Tapgol park in Seoul,
urging President Kim Dae-jung to free all prisoners of conscience.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International says there are more
than 100 political prisoners still in South Korean jails.

Kim, himself a former political prisoner, granted amnesty to thousands this
year. But some of the longest-serving political prisoners remain in jail
after refusing to sign pledges to uphold the law, including the hated
National Security Law.

The law outlaws communism or even possession of communist materials.

The New York-based Human Rights in China said in a statement Beijing
continued to ``repress advocates for human rights, democracy, labour rights
and religious freedoms.''

``For all of us who fight for human rights in China, this historic date is
not a day for celebration,'' said Xiao Qiang, executive director of Human
Rights in China.

``Let's not forget all the thousands of imprisoned human rights defenders in
China. Today marks our determination to gain their release and the freedom
of all Chinese people.''