Human rights meet may damage ties

Tue, 19 Jul 1994 | Source: AFP

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand yesterday defended its decision to block foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from attending a regional human rights conference during the annual ASEAN meeting this week.

"I think (the meeting) would damage the relationship between Thailand and Indonesia," Prasong Soonsiri told reporters, "especially since Indonesia is an ASEAN country and we have a lot of projects..., trade and investment."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual ministerial conference is to start here on Friday.

A July 19-25 seminar, also in the Thai capital, was to focus primarily on Myanmar and East Timor, organizers from the Southeast Asian Human Rights Network (SEANET) told AFP.

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