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Submission to the 12Th ASEAN SUMMIT 11-14 December 2006 CEBU, Philippines

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Submission to the 12Th ASEAN SUMMIT 11-14 December 2006 CEBU, Philippines Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Lao Movement Human RightS for Human Rights (LICADHO) Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates Think Centre (Singapore) Association for Human Vietnam Committee on Rights and Development in Union for Civil Human Rights Cambodia ADHOC Liberties UCL Submission to the 12th ASEAN SUMMIT 11-14 December 2006 CEBU, Philippines 1. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Throughout 2006, human rights defenders in many Asian States have been subjected to severe repression. In a number of ASEAN states, human rights defenders are still victims of assassination (Philippines, Thailand) or are arbitrarily arrested or under house arrest (Burma, Vietnam). In other countries, the right to freedom of assembly is severely restricted (Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore). In Laos, it remains virtually impossible to carry out activities in the defence of human rights because of the extremely harsh repression. In Burma, escalating human rights violations are being perpetrated by the Burmese regime, the military junta known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Recently, the SPDC has further increased political repression. Indeed, on 27 September 2006, the three most prominent student leaders of Burma, Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe were arrested by the Burmese military regime. All had already served over 15 years in prison. They had been released in 2004 and 2005 and since then, they have been working tirelessly to bring about democratic changes in the country by peaceful means. The effective laws and judicial system do not facilitate the emergence and strengthening of the civil society in Burma. The 1988 Association Law enacted by the regime prohibits formation and function of independent organizations. The judiciary is not able to provide protection for civil society educators and human rights activists given that it is subservient to the ruling military regime. Despite more than 28 resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, calling for national reconciliation and democratization in Burma, as well as the actions undertaken by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his office over the past ten years, and the four envoys to Burma mandated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, the SPDC’s unlawful methods of political and ethnic repression have intensified and consolidated. Indeed, only days after the most recent visit to Burma by UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, in May 2006, during which he was allowed to meet briefly with Aung San Suu Kyi and called for her release, her detention was once again arbitrarily prolonged for yet another year. Furthermore, since Mr Gambari’s last visit, the Burmese military junta has not undertaken any action in favour of national reconciliation. Indeed, in mid-September 2006, the regime publicly declared that it will never engage in discussions with the NLD and ethnic minorities. Instead, NLD leaders and democracy activists have increasingly been subjected to harassment including arbitrary arrests, humanitarian organizations and U.N. agencies remain unable to carry out their missions to help the thousands of displaced, and practices of forced labour and forced relocation remain widespread. The dire humanitarian crisis is worsened by the increasingly strict conditions imposed by the Burmese regime on humanitarian organizations, in some cases amounting to a complete denial of access, so that they are unable to reach the internally displaced facing the greatest needs. Recently, ICRC, which is mainly contributing to protect and promote the rights of prisoners in Burma, was forced to shut down its offices and leave the country. In Cambodia, three high-profile human rights defenders arrested in December 2005 and January 2006 (Kem Sokha, Yeng Virak and Pa Nguon Teang) have been released thanks to strong international and domestic pressure. However, intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders continues unabated throughout Cambodia. Staff of human rights NGOs have faced death threats, physical assaults and obstruction to their work, while community activists and trade unionists have increasingly been targeted for particularly serious violations including unjustified arrest and imprisonment. Human rights defenders in Cambodia are particularly under attack for their efforts to defend citizens' rights to land and natural resources. Land-grabbing by the rich and powerful is reaching epidemic proportions in the country, and individuals who try to help poor communities to protect their land are often targeted for intimidation and violence. This may range from verbal threats and petty harassment, through to serious physical assaults, particularly during land evictions. A particularly common strategy used by perpetrators is to file malicious criminal complaints against community representatives who are active in organizing or advising their fellow villagers to advocate to protect their land. Numerous community representatives have been summonsed to court or imprisoned on spurious criminal charges, in a clear attempt to frightened their communities into giving up their land and to punish those who try to defend them. Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly remain severely restricted in Cambodia, impacting on human rights defenders' ability to publicly air concerns about serious rights abuses and advocate for judicial and government reforms.1 Defamation remains a criminal offence, subject to large fines, although prison sentences for it were abolished in 2006. Government critics can also be charged with "disinformation", which carries a prison sentence of up to three years. Peaceful public gatherings to highlight human rights issues are rarely permitted, and sometime violently dispersed, by the authorities. With local elections scheduled to be held in 2007, and national elections in 2008, there are indications of an increase in political intimidation and violence, including several recent killings of opposition party activists for which the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice. In such a climate, threats to human rights defenders are likely to increase. The precarious situation for human rights defenders in Cambodia is under-pinned by rampant impunity for human rights abusers and lack of rule of law in the country, with the police, judiciary and civil service wracked by corruption and political control. Key institutions such as the Supreme Council of Magistracy and the Bar Association lack independence. In Indonesia, by the end of 2005, an investigation had still not been opened into the disappearance of Mr. Abdussalam Muhamad Deli and the assassination of Mr. Raja Ismail, although the two cases had been immediately reported to the National Human Rights Commission 1 FIDH published a mission report last February, with a section under the Observatory, which details those aspects and includes a set of recommendations in order to improve the situation, “Threats to freedom of expression and assembly in Cambodia”, February 2006. (KOMNAS-HAM) and the local police. They were both volunteers of the Legal Aid and Human Rights Agency (PB-HAM) in East Aceh, an NGO carrying out advocacy through data collection, the organisation of campaigns and the provision of legal assistance. They disappeared in May 2003. The body of Mr. Raja Ismail was found a few days later, and it showed signs of strangulation, knife wounds and bruises. On 7 September 2004, Mr. Munir Said Thalib, co-founder of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KONTRAS), had died on board of a Garuda Airlines flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. On 11 November 2004, the Dutch Forensic Institute had made public the findings of the autopsy conducted on the body, and had disclosed the presence of a lethal dose of arsenic, thus confirming the fears that Mr. Munir was murdered. The Indonesian authorities had then initiated an enquiry into his death. Mr. Munir had played a leading role in the investigations into human rights violations perpetrated by the Indonesian army, particularly in East Timor. He had also led numerous investigations into the disappearances of activists in Aceh and Papua, under the Suharto dictatorship. On 20 December 2005, the Jakarta Central District Court sentenced Mr. Priyanto, Garuda Airlines pilot, suspected of having offered a first class seat to Mr. Munir and of having then put arsenic in his orange juice, to 14 years in prison for “premeditated murder”. The proceedings appeared to disregard the results of the inquiry undertaken from December 2004 to June 2005 by an official investigation team, that suggested the involvement of senior executives of the State airline Garuda and high-level officials of the State Intelligence Agency in the death of Mr. Munir. Mr. Priyanto is currently free. In Laos, it remains virtually impossible to carry out activities in the defence of human rights because of the extremely harsh repression. For the Lao leaders’ regime, human rights, religious freedom and democracy are strictly stamped as “domestic issues”. Since 1975, there has only been one public demonstration: the “26 October 1999 Movement”, when a group of students, teachers, civil servants and Lao citizens tried to conduct a peaceful March in Vientiane, demanding Justice, Freedom, Democracy and National Reconciliation. They were met with violent repression by the political police, about 100 people were arrested and detained. Five Movement leaders - Thongpraseuth Keuakoun, Khamphouvieng Sisa-at, Sengaroun Phenphanh,
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