Reuters-Australia defends rights vi

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Subject: Reuters-Australia defends rights visit to Myanmar 

Australia defends rights visit to Myanmar
03:30 a.m. Aug 05, 1999 Eastern
SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Australia's human rights commissioner on Thursday
defended his recent visit to Myanmar, saying the military regime should be
engaged in a human rights dialogue after expressing interest in a national
rights watchdog.

On his return from a three-day visit to Myanmar, Chris Sidoti acknowledged
concerns that his visit could lend credibility to the military regime, but
added he was surprised by the extent of the government's interest in
establishing a human rights body.

``If the government of Myanmar has expressed a wish to do something about
protecting human rights, we should be willing to enter into dialogue to see
whether that is possible,'' Chris Sidoti told a news conference.

The idea of a rights commission was first proposed by Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer a year ago. Downer raised the issue again with
Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung in Singapore last week, prompting
Sidoti's visit.

``Whether the (opposition) National League for Democracy likes it or not,
the simple fact is that the NLD is not presently in a position to do very
much at all about protecting the human rights of the people of Burma,''
Sidoti said.

``The government on the other hand, however illegitimate the process by
which it assumed power may be, is,'' he said.

International human rights groups say the Myanmar military government has
been guilty of widespread human rights abuses, including mass arrests and
torture, against political opponents since seizing power in 1988 by crushing
a pro-democracy uprising.

Sidoti said he had been surprised by the expressions of support at several
meetings with senior Myanmar government officials over setting up a national
human rights body.

The proposed rights body is similar to those in the seven-member Asia
Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. Such a body was set up
during Indonesian's Suharto regime in early 1990s.

``The Minister for Home Affairs Tin Hlaing in particular assured me that his
government was interested in pursuing this proposal,'' Sidoti said. ``I was
surprised by the amount of interest he showed... I don't know what lies

behind it.''

The Myanmar government will send an observer to a meeting of the Asia
Pacific Forum next month to meet members of other human rights commissions
in the region, Sidoti said.

Myanmar was also interested in exploring possible exchange and cooperation
in human rights training for government officials and the police, he said.

Sidoti did not request a meeting with opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but met
other opposition figures.

He said vice chairman of the NLD, Tin Oo, expressed misgivings about his
mission and was sceptical the Myanmar regime would allow an independent
human rights commission.