ASEAN: Make Human Rights a Regional Concern - Summit Meeting Should Address Burma, Refugees, and Migrants

(New York) - Southeast Asian leaders at the 14th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit meeting should address the dire human rights situation in Burma, improve treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and strengthen protection for migrants, Human Rights Watch said in a letter today to the ASEAN secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan. Human Rights Watch urged that these issues be a priority for the new ASEAN human rights body, which is to be discussed at the meeting taking place from February 27 to March 1 in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Human Rights Watch said that the recent forced return at sea of boats containing ethnic Rohingya refugees from Burma, leading to hundreds of deaths, was proof of the need for regional solutions to Southeast Asia's human rights problems. The global economic downturn and the resulting impact on migrants' rights also highlights how gaps in current labor and policy frameworks across the region also have left millions of workers at high risk of mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said.

"The tragedy surrounding the Rohingyas' perilous exodus reveals glaring failures of ASEAN in dealing with Burma," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "ASEAN's continuing failure to hold the Burmese military government accountable for abuses and ASEAN's unwillingness to provide refuge for those fleeing oppression in Burma are two sides of the same coin."

Burma's military government continues to deny its citizens basic freedoms, including freedom of expression, association, and assembly. It regularly imprisons political activists and human rights defenders - the number of political prisoners nearly doubled following the September 2007 crackdown, to more than 2,150. The Burmese military continues to violate the rights of civilians in ethnic conflict areas by committing extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and land confiscation without due process, both as part of military offensives and in preparation for mega-infrastructure projects of foreign companies.

Human Rights Watch said that ASEAN's human rights body should independently investigate and report on human rights conditions in member countries, and that Burma should be a priority.

The summit meeting is likely to discuss what measures may be taken, in cooperation with the United Nations refugee agency, to protect the Rohingya in countries where they land after fleeing Burma. But a significant step to ensure binding commitment of the entire region would be for all ASEAN member states to ratify the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 Protocol without delay.

"The plight of the Rohingya, exacerbated by Thailand's actions in pushing them back out to sea, should be a wake-up call for ASEAN to change its approach in dealing with refugees and migrants," said Pearson. "ASEAN countries can no longer look the other way and close the door to those in need of protection."

Millions of men and women from Southeast Asia work as migrants in both Asia and the Middle East, typically in domestic work, construction, manufacturing and agriculture. Trafficking within, and emanating from, Southeast Asia remains a serious problem, and harsh immigration enforcement measures have fueled additional abuses in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.

"Many migrants are deceived about their working conditions, cheated out of their wages, abused by their employers, and deported without access to redress," said Pearson. "The economic downturn places migrants at heightened risk - desperation and gaps in legal protections provide a recipe for exploitation."

In many cases, bilateral cooperation between ASEAN countries has failed to establish adequate protection for vulnerable migrant populations. Regional cooperation and leadership from ASEAN can help to ensure minimum standards across the region that will avoid an unhealthy race to the bottom, as countries compete for jobs in a volatile economic climate. Furthermore, ASEAN can play an important role in fighting human trafficking.

Both Malaysia and Thailand have failed to investigate allegations of collusion between government officials and trafficking gangs on the Malay-Thai border. In 2008, Burmese migrants told Human Rights Watch of being sold to criminal gangs, who charged those with money to smuggle them back into Malaysia and trafficked those who could not pay.

While ASEAN has recently declared its intention to address some of these issues through its Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, its Declaration on Trafficking in Persons, Particularly Women and Children, and the Bali Process, concrete improvements have yet to be seen. In the letter, Human Rights Watch urges ASEAN member states to end restrictions on migrant workers' freedom of movement and freedom of association, to ensure that migrants have access to justice and support services, and to institute screening procedures to identify and assist victims of trafficking and abused migrant workers, among other measures.

"Concrete measures to promote and protect the rights of refugees and migrants will make it possible for ASEAN to evolve from a talk shop and become an action-oriented organization, responding to what really matters to people in Southeast Asia," said Pearson.

Candle4Burma

(Warning: if you are a sensitive reader, please note this post contains shocking, tragic and heart breaking true life stories)

Burma is the most religious Buddhist country in terms of proportion of monks in the population and proportion of income spent on religion. Monks are treasured and revered by the Burmese community.

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal regimes in the World. This was brought sharply to the world’s attention by the Saffron Revolution in September ’07. Tragically, many people where killed, jailed or went missing. Many monks where killed and many disappeared from the face of the earth forever ...and the world stood by and did nothing....

In Thai / Burma border region there are more than 10 refugee camps. These camps are occupied by more than 300,000 people. The Burmese army attacks its own people, burning down villages almost every day. Villagers on the run get shot or they are killed by landmines. Refugees who live in the jungle have nothing. Mothers, fathers, babies, children and elderly people live in fear of the junta army. People are arrested and forced into hard labour by the Junta. Civilians are used as minesweepers by the army. The army takes young children out of their schools to be soldiers for the Junta. In Burma there are more then 70,000 child soldiers.

In Burma there are more then 2000 political prisoners. People are been given long term jail sentences. Prisoners are being tortured and killed by the Junta. The most famous of these noble political prisoners, is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She won the Burmese presidential elections but has been under house arrest for almost 19 years.

Then there was the cyclone "Nargis'... which killed more than a 100,000 people. Thousands went missing but the Junta would not let any aid into the country.

Burma is in crisis. The UN is silent, The USA is silent, The EU is silent. ...the Junta continues killing its own people.

This is why Candle4burma has been created. May our candles create enough light to wake the world up to the suffering of the people of Burma. May the candles burn till the day Burma is free.

Please support this Network and encourage your friends and family participate in Candle4burma. Please do your bit to bring awareness to the world about this tragedy of our fellow human beings

Thank you and many blessings
Candle4Burma

Nick Kristof Sneaks Into Burma To Report On Human Rights Abuses by Nicholas Kristof

MYAWADDY, Myanmar: Before entering Myanmar from Thailand, you scrub your bags of any hint that you might be engaged in some pernicious evil, such as espionage, journalism or promotion of human rights.

Then you exit from the Thai town of Mae Sot and walk across the gleaming white "friendship bridge" to the Burmese immigration post on the other side. Entering Myanmar (which traditionally has been known as Burma), you adjust your watch: Myanmar is 30 minutes - and 50 years - behind.

Already Myanmar's government is one of the most brutal in the world, and in recent months it has become even more repressive.

A blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A prominent comedian, Zarganar, was sentenced to 59 years. A former student leader, Min Ko Naing, a survivor of years of torture and solitary confinement, has received terms of 65 years so far and faces additional sentences that may reach a total of 150 years.

"Politically, things are definitely getting worse," said David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar for Human Rights Watch living on the Thai-Burmese border. "They've just sent hundreds of people who should be agents of change to long prison terms."

A new American presidency is a useful moment to review policy toward Myanmar, and the truth is that the West's approach has failed.

The Burmese junta has ruled despotically since 1988, ignoring democratic elections. Since then, sanctions have had zero effect in moderating the regime.

I have vast respect for Aung San Suu Kyi, the extraordinary woman who won a Nobel Peace Prize for standing up to the country's thugs.

But the best use of her courage right now would be to accept that the trade sanctions she advocated have accomplished nothing more than further impoverishing her own people. As with Cuba and North Korea, isolating a venal regime usually just hurts the innocent and helps the thugs stay in power.

Instead, the best bet is financial sanctions that specifically target individuals close to the regime - and, even more, a clampdown on Burma's arms imports.

"It would be very difficult to get an arms embargo through the Security Council, but that's something that really goes to the heart of any military regime," Mathieson said. "You lock them out of the tools of their own self-aggrandizement and repression."

President George W. Bush tried to help Burmese dissidents, but he had zero international capital. The Obama administration, in contrast, has a chance to lead an international initiative to curb Burmese arms imports and bring the regime to the negotiating table.

Myanmar's weapons have come from or through China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Singapore, and Russia is even selling Myanmar's dictators a nuclear reactor, Mathieson said.

In crossing from Thailand to Myanmar, you pass through a time warp.

You leave the bustle and dynamism of Thailand and encounter a stagnating backwater of antique cars and shacks beside open sewers.

I found it difficult to interview people in Myanmar, because I was traveling as a tourist with two of my kids (and my wife is sick of me getting our kids arrested with me in dictatorships).

But we dropped in on the Myawaddy hospital, which was so understaffed that no one stopped us as we marched through wards of neglected patients.

The most flourishing business we saw on the Burmese side belonged to a snake charmer who set up temporary shop outside a temple.

The moment a crowd gathered, an armed soldier ran over in alarm - and then relaxed when he saw that the only threat to public order was a cobra.

In Mae Sot, Thailand, I visited with former Burmese political prisoners, like the courageous Bo Kyi. They are at risk of being killed by Burmese government assassins, yet they are campaigning aggressively for change.

Equally inspiring are the Free Burma Rangers, who risk their lives to sneak deep into the country for months at a time to provide medical care and document human rights abuses.

One gutsy American working with the group, who asked that his name not be used for security reasons, communicated with me by satellite phone from his hiding place deep inside Myanmar.

He knows that the Burmese government will kill him if it catches him, yet he stays to gather photos and other evidence of how Burmese soldiers are drafting ethnic Karen villagers for forced labor and are raping women and girls. One recent case described by the Free Burma Rangers involved a 7-year-old girl who was raped, and then killed.

The courage of these people seeking a new Myanmar is infectious and inspiring. In this new administration, let's help them - and see if with new approaches we can finally topple one of the most odious regimes in the world.