Workers set up a billboard on
the eve of the start of the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) in Manila.

We have learned that the ten member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, reached an agreement on 30th July, 2007, to set up a regional human rights commission in order to deal with and solve human rights issues in the region. We, the members of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), (AAPPB), recognize that such an agreement to set up a regional human rights commission will bring good opportunities to monitor human rights violations and abuses, and support this agreement as a positive prospect for people in Burma.

This agreement is sorely needed as human rights abuses continue unchecked throughout Burma.

On the same day of the agreement, 30th July, 2007, a private teacher from Prome, Bago Division, Min Min was sentenced to three years imprisonment plus 30,000 kyat fine because he let members of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) have a human rights training at his place.

Furthermore, Myint Naing, a member of HRDP and five villagers who attended the human rights training were sentenced to long-term imprisonments on 24th July 2007. HRDP Members visit villages around Burma and educate people about human rights through human rights seminars and help protect the victims of human rights violations.

On 18 April, 2007, members of HRDP, Maung Maung Lay and Myint Naing were beaten by members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a regime supported group of police and township administrative servants near Oat-Pon village, Hinzada township, Irrawaddy Division while they were distributing the universal declaration of human rights. They were hospitalized in Rangoon General Hospital as emergency cases for over ten days.

There are many more cases in which the regime arrests, oppresses and imprisons many rights-based activists who demonstrate because of high commodity prices, and who initiate discussions about worker rights. These activities and reactions clearly demonstrate that the regime not only violates human rights but also severely cracks down on human rights activists.

We, the members of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), (AAPPB), genuinely hope that the emergence of a regional human rights commission can bring effective protection for victims of human rights violations inside Burma. We believe that by exercising excessive use of power, the regime is intentionally challenging the international community's condemnations.

For that reason, the AAPPB also deeply urges the upcoming ASEAN human rights commission to ensure certain rights such as freedom of collecting information, freedom to perform any human rights, and actions for human rights violators.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)

For more information, please contact:

Tate Naing: (+66) 81 287 8751
Bo Kyi: (+66) 81 324 8935

http://aappb.org/

MANILA, Philippines - Southeast Asian foreign ministers pressed Myanmar on Monday to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and "show tangible progress" in democratic reforms, in some of their toughest remarks yet to its military rulers.

They also agreed to set up a regional human rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from Myanmar.

Myanmar's dismal human rights record has been a constant problem for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since it became a member 10 years ago.

ASEAN has repeatedly said it hopes to encourage democratic reforms through "constructive engagement" with the junta, but it has made little tangible progress, tarnishing the regional group's reputation.

The ASEAN foreign ministers said they expressed concern at their annual meeting Monday to Myanmar about its slow pace of change and urged it to "show tangible progress that would lead to a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future."

"We continue to express concern on the detention of all political detainees and reiterate our calls for their early release," they said in a statement.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the group specifically mentioned opposition leader Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was recently extended, but that Myanmar did not promise to free her.

"While we understand their problems, we think there is a need for resolution and a move toward democracy," he said. "I think we have made a very strong comment that we want to see something that can be believed, acceptable to the international community."

Syed Hamid said the group had given Myanmar a "timeline for improvement, " but did not provide details.

On Sunday, Myanmar blocked the inclusion of a provision creating a regional human rights body in a new charter being drafted for ASEAN by lower-level officials, a diplomat involved in the drafting said.

However, in their meeting Monday, the foreign ministers agreed to include the provision, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

Details of the rights commission will be settled later, he said.

Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam suggested earlier that they were not ready for the immediate establishment of such a body, and ASEAN members might be allowed to join the commission at a later date.

Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam _ ASEAN's most recent members _ all have authoritarian or single-party governments.

The Philippines had pressed strongly for the ASEAN human rights body, with Romulo saying it would give the bloc "more credibility in the international community."

ASEAN has traditionally held to a cardinal policy of noninterference in each other's affairs. Human rights groups complain that this noninterference principle fostered undemocratic governments in the region.

The new charter is also expected to address the diverse group's decision-making process, which is often slowed by its use of consensus. The foreign ministers were unable to decide whether to shift to a voting system and will pass the issue on to their leaders, officials said.

The ministers also tackled terrorism, better enforcement of a regional anti-nuclear treaty, disaster management and ways to help poorer members catch up with wealthier ones to foster faster economic integration.

They said they believed the "phased and calibrated withdrawal of foreign forces in Iraq, taking into account the conditions on the ground, will contribute toward bringing normalcy."

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)said Monday it would pursue constructive engagement with Myanmar but expressed concern over the slow implementation of democratic reforms in the military-ruled country.

'We recognised the fact that Myanmar has tried to address the many and complex challenges she is facing,' the ASEAN foreign ministers said in a joint communique at the end of their annual meeting held here.

'We reaffirmed our commitment to remain constructively engaged in Myanmar as part of building one caring and sharing regional community together,' they added.

But the ministers reiterated their unhappiness over the slow progress in Myanmar's efforts to return to democracy and appealed to the Yangon junta to show 'tangible progress.'

'We expressed concern on the pace of the national reconciliation process and urged Myanmar to show tangible progress that would lead to a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future,' the joint communique said.

During an informal meeting late Sunday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said he and his co-ministers expressed to their Myanmar counterpart their impatience over the slow process of reforms.

Romulo said they reminded Myanmar that when it was accepted into the regional grouping 10 years ago, the junta promised to return the country to democracy.

Analysts said the stature of ASEAN as a regional grouping has been greatly diminished by Myanmar's continued non-compliance with its promise of democratic reforms.

The ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

MANILA: ASEAN foreign ministers have expressed concern over the pace of national reconciliation and peaceful transition to democracy in Myanmar.

In their communique issued at the end of the ministerial meeting in Manila, they called on Myanmar to show tangible progress that would lead to a transition to democracy.

However, the foreign ministers welcomed the convening of the final session of Myanmar's National Convention.

They also expressed hope that Myanmar would move to the next step of the roadmap.

The ministers also expressed concern over Myanmar's detention of political detainees and called for their early release.

However, the communique did not explicitly name Aung San Syu Kyi.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka has become the 27th country to be made a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will meet in Manila on Thursday. - CNA/ir