Southeast Asian leaders launched a widely criticized human rights body yesterday at a regional summit where they will also grapple with plans for economic and political integration.
Thailand deployed thousands of troops and dozens of armored vehicles to the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin for the opening of the meeting, which has twice been postponed by protests in the past year.
ASEAN heads of state will hold talks before wide-ranging meetings with their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand over the weekend.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva opened the summit by defending the new rights body against criticism that it is powerless to rein in members that breach its rules, such as army-ruled Myanmar and communist Vietnam and Laos.
“The establishment of the commission is yet another significant milestone in the evolution of ASEAN,” Abhisit said after leaders of the 10-member bloc inaugurated the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.
But the launch was marred by a row over the barring of civil rights activists from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore who were meant to meet ASEAN leaders at Hua Hin to discuss the new watchdog.
“This is an outrageous development,” said Debbie Stothard of the independent ASEAN People’s Forum, which nominated the activists. “It is a rejection of civil society and of the democratic process by which they were selected.”
The rights watchdog has also been criticized for focusing on the promotion of rights rather than actual protection in the region of nearly 600 million people.
The UN on Thursday urged leaders to make the commission “credible.” ASEAN says it will review the body’s powers in five years.
Myanmar is likely to come under the spotlight at the summit for its continued detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but regularly gets an easier ride from its regional neighbors than the West would like.
The US recently embarked on a major policy shift to re-engage Myanmar’s junta after decades of hostility and is planning a rare mission to the country next week.
But at breakfast in his Hua Hin hotel yesterday morning, Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win brushed off questions about the visit, saying he did not know the schedule for the trip.
Asian leaders at the summit are later expected to turn their attention towards growing economic integration, especially with China, and plans to establish an EU-style economic community by the year 2015.
The leaders will sign a host of agreements on economic and other issues including disaster management, communications and food security in the rapidly changing region.
They are also expected to grapple with climate change and urge rich nations to take on the burden of tackling carbon emissions ahead of a December meeting in Copenhagen, where the world will try to hammer out a new climate treaty.
The ASEAN summit was originally to be held in the popular tourist destination of Pattaya in April but was called off after anti-government protesters stormed the venue and forced foreign leaders to flee.
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