Human rights not high on ASEM agenda

Human rights not high on ASEM agenda

BERLIN (Reuters): Sensitive topics like human rights are
likely to be soft-pedaled when foreign ministers from 25 European
Union and Asian nations gather in Berlin on Monday to discuss a
variety of global political and economic issues.

Diplomats from the 15 EU states and 10 Asian nations attending
the second Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers since
its 1996 launch are not planning anything more than talk --
especially on the explosive issue of human rights.

Even though German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is
hosting the biannual meeting, has twice criticized China's human
rights record recently, the ASEM foreign ministers are not
expected to produce anything more binding than a communique.

Fischer said after a meeting in Bonn on Friday with China's
Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan that China had made important steps
towards opening itself to the world in the last decade, but that
its record on human rights was deteriorating.

Fischer accused China of imprisoning political dissidents for
expressing their views, condemned the extent it uses the death
penalty and said Germany was deeply concerned about its policies
on Tibet.

But Tang, standing next to Fischer, rejected the criticism and
urged Fischer to inspect China for himself.

"Seeing it once is better than hearing about it one hundred
times," he said.

In Berlin, Fischer, Tang and their counterparts will also
discuss the crisis in former Yugoslavia and its consequences for
Europe, Russia's economic and political development, the
situation on the Korean peninsula, Cambodia and human rights.

Among financial issues to be discussed are the financial
crisis in the Far East, the euro and issues involving the World
Trade Organization.

That the ASEM meeting is taking place at all is viewed as a
tribute to diplomacy. Plans to hold a separate meeting in Berlin
on Tuesday between foreign ministers from the EU and ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) nations were scrapped.

This was canceled because the EU would not relax its ban on
officials from ASEAN member Myanmar traveling to Germany. The EU
has long criticized Myanmar's human rights record.

Officials said that even though the EU-ASEAN meeting was
canceled because of the row, it was important to keep the
dialogue open between the two regions through other channels such
as ASEM, of which Myanmar is not a member.

Along with the 15 EU nations, ASEM is made up of China, Japan,
South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.

Designed as an informal gathering between EU and Asian states,
ASEM was launched with a summit of state and government leaders
in Bangkok in 1996. A second summit was held last year in London
and the third will take place in 2000 in Seoul. Foreign ministers
met in 1997 in Singapore.