War on terrorism may boost rights abuses in SE Asia: HRW
War on terrorism may boost rights abuses in SE Asia: HRW
Luke Hunt, Agence France-Presse, Phnom Penh
Security talks at this week's meetings of Southeast Asian leaders could encourage further human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Tuesday.
The international rights watchdog urged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to invite the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other independent experts to monitor the human rights impact of security laws and policies in the region.
"The regional security forum has pledged support to the international campaign against terrorism, but has been conspicuously silent on human rights issues," said Brad Adams, executive director of HRW's Asia Division.
A letter highlighting abuses by eight countries and members of the European Union (EU) was sent to delegates at ministerial meetings for ASEAN.
Terrorism is expected to take the spotlight at Wednesday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell attending along with counterparts from Australia, China, India, Russia and the European Union.
The annual ARF also coincides with the recent arrests of suspected Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militants in Cambodia and Thailand. JI members are on trial in Indonesia, accused of last year's bombing on the resort island of Bali that left 202 people dead.
HRW said many ARF countries were abusing human rights on the pretext of fighting terrorism. ARF includes key ASEAN dialog partners such as Australia, China, India, Russia, the U.S. and the EU.
Those countries, along with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were singled out by the New York-based HRW for using counter- terrorism rhetoric, laws, and policies that violate individual rights.
"ASEAN is right to focus on the threat of terrorism, but should commit to building in protections for due process and human rights," Adams said.
He said other comparable regional organizations, such as the Organization of American States, the Organization of Security Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe, had built human rights safeguards into their counter-terrorist initiatives.
"The campaign against terror must not be a green light for indefinite detention without trial or torture," Adams said.
"The best way to prevent terrorism is to bolster human rights protections and to build civil society institutions," he added. "Indeed, repression breeds terrorism by channeling political grievances into extremist violence."
The letter won tacit approval from East Timor's Foreign Minister Ramos Horta who enjoyed a decade of support from human rights groups while attempting to win independence for his country which occurred in 1998.
However, Horta said countries like the U.S. and Australia were in a dilemma.
"It is true that one side effect of the war on terror is some non-democratic regimes will use war on terrorism as a convenient tool to replace democratic oppositions and non-governmental organizations that are involved in non-violent pro-democracy issues.
"But the U.S. and its allies need to forge a broad alliance against a common enemy and they are caught in this dilemma. They can't be too choosy about their allies but at the end of the day if we don't discriminate about allies then it could backfire," he told AFP.