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.