Human Rights Watch/Asia - Press Rel

[hrwatchuk@xxxxxxxxxx]

Human Rights Watch/Asia - Press Release
 
Embargoed for release 01:00 GMT
July 25, 1997
     
Contact: Mike Jendrzejczyk, DC: 202-371-6592, ext. 113; (h)
301-585-5824
               Sarah Cooke, London: 44-171-713-1995
               Susan Osnos, NY: 212-972-8400, ext. 216
     
ASEAN Urged to Address Abuses in Burma, Cambodia
     
As the foreign ministers of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian
Nations) move into the final day of their meeting in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia and prepare to meet with their "dialogue partners" on July
28-29, Human Rights Watch/Asia is calling on ASEAN to effectively
address the serious human rights problems in Burma and Cambodia in
order to promote stability in the region.  "Whether it's the
disastrous effect on investment and development of executions and mass
arrests in Cambodia, or the continuing outflow of refugees sparked by
gross abuses in Burma, ASEAN has an inherent self-interest in becoming
more pro-active on behalf of human rights," said Mike Jendrzejczyk,
the organization's Washington Director. "Its role in Cambodia has
certainly been highly useful and constructive and we hope that ASEAN
will also become more active on Burma."  ASEAN is expected to formally
admit Burma as a member of the association at its ministerial meeting
on July 24-25; Cambodia's ASEAN membership has been delayed, though
the current foreign minister, Ung Huot, is due to attend as an
observer.
     
Human Rights Watch/Asia released a report, "Burma/Thailand: No Safety
in Burma, No Sanctuary in Thailand," as the ASEAN meetings were
underway, charging that human rights abuses committed by the Burmese
military government continue to force thousands of refugees into
neighboring countries.  These abuses, which include killings, torture,

forced labor and forced relocations, have continued even in areas
where cease-fire agreements with rebel armies have been signed.
Thailand -- a leading member of ASEAN -- has borne the main burden of
new refugees in the past year. The report also documents violations of
international legal norms by the Royal Thai government, which has
forcibly repatriated back to Burma more than 8,500 refugees who fled a
military offensive against the Karen National Union in February, 1997.
Thai authorities also refused entry to an estimated 60,000 refugees
from the Shan State from March 1996 onwards. The refugees were fleeing
forced relocations and other abuses by the Burmese army affecting an
estimated 100,000 people.  The report was based on first-hand
interviews conducted on the Thai-Burmese border in June 1997, and
other documentation.
     
As the more refugee-producing country in the region, the Burmese
government has been denounced in successive United Nations
resolutions, yet ASEAN has largely remained silent. "We hope that
ASEAN, having admitted Burma as a member, will establish a working
group to promote a peaceful end to violence and to curb repression,
pressing for implementation of the U.N.'s recommendations," said Mike
Jendrzejczyk. "It is urgent that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Burma,
Justice Rajsoomer Lallah, be given access to Burma -- including ethnic
minority areas -- before the next ASEAN meeting in Malaysia in
December 1997."  Human Rights Watch/Asia also called on the Thai
authorities to take steps to prevent the forcible repatriation of
refugees and to allow the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to carry
out its mandate on the Thai/Burmese border, and urged the broader
international community to step up concerted pressure on Rangoon to
respect basic human rights, including through economic measures.    
               
In Cambodia, since Second Prime Minister Hun Sen's July 5-6 coup, the
ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has carried out a sustained
campaign of violence and intimidation aimed at rooting out the
political opposition.  There have been between thirty and forty deaths
in detention, including six confirmed assassinations of high-ranking
officials from the FUNCINPEC party of First Prime Minister Prince
Norodom Ranaraiddh.  The government has detained hundreds of soldiers
from army units commanded by pro-FUNCINPEC officers, and by its own
admission, subjected them to a program of  "reeducation."  At least
thirty of these soldiers, detained at a former FUNCINPEC base at
Thaing Kasing, have been tortured while in custody.  FUNCINPEC's
entire organizational structure has been shattered, with offices
throughout the country looted and destroyed  and up to 200 local or
provincial officials placed in detention.   Door-to-door searches of
FUNCINPEC members continue, on the pretext of uncovering "illegal
weapons." Although the Second Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to
hold free and fair elections for Cambodia's parliament next year,
there is little reason to feel confident this commitment will be
fulfilled when scores of opposition parliamentarians, journalists, and
human rights activists -- whose presence is crucial to ensuring free
elections take place -- have gone into hiding or fled across the
border to Thailand.   
     
Human Rights Watch/Asia called on the member countries of ASEAN to: 1)
continue to delay Cambodia's ASEAN membership pending an end to
killings, arrests and harassment of opposition politicians and
supporters, the release of all those in custody, and steps by the
Royal Cambodian Government to hold accountable those responsible for
abuses that have occurred during and since the coup; 2) continue to
withhold investment in Cambodia until basic human rights and
conditions for internationally supervised free and fair elections are
restored and elections are underway; 3) ensure the provision of
humanitarian parole to refugees fleeing political persecution in
Cambodia and facilitate the safe passage of refugees to destinations
outside the region.      
        
Other governments attending the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference,
including the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan, should
closely coordinate their policies with ASEAN and announce in Kuala
Lumpur that they will suspend all bilateral and multilateral aid to
the Cambodian government pending compliance with the measures outlined
above, while providing direct assistance to non-governmental
organizations, private development  and human rights  groups; instruct
their embassies in Cambodia to provide shelter and, on a case-by-case
basis, visas for victims of political persecution; expand budgetary
support for the Phnom Penh field office of the U.N.Centre for Human
Rights and local human rights groups; and demand immediate access to
all detainees by the U.N. Centre for Human Rights and the
International Committee of the Red Cross.


If anyone requires a copy of the report "Burma/Thailand:, No Safety in
Burma, No Sanctuary in Thailand " please email request to
hrwatchuk@xxxxxxxxxxx