(L-R) Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, Myanmar's Prime Minister General Thein Sein, Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. Southeast Asian leaders opened their annual summit Tuesday with the signing of their first charter overshadowed by Myanmar, which embarrassed the region by blocking a UN briefing on the military state (AFP/Pool/Tim Chong)Leaders of the South East Asian group of countries, Asean, have signed a landmark charter committing them to promote human rights and democracy.
The document, agreed by the 10 member states at a summit in Singapore, sets out Asean's principles and rules for the first time in its 40-year history.
But the signing ceremony took place amid continued condemnation of the rights record of Asean member Burma.
Critics say the charter will not rein in Burma's military regime.
The controversy continued at the summit, where host nation Singapore had invited the UN's special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to make a speech.
Burmese officials objected, and gained the support of the eight other member nations, blocking Mr Gambari's briefing.
Earlier, a senior US official had warned that Asean's credibility was at stake over its handling of the crisis in Burma.
'Momentous step'
One of the most significant pledges in the charter is to set up a regional human rights body.
But critics say it will have limited impact as it will not be able to punish governments that violate the human rights of their citizens.
Negotiators rejected some more radical plans for the charter - such as enabling sanctions and possible expulsions against member states which seriously breached agreements.
"Of course there has been some watering down," former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, who helped draft the charter, told the Associated Press.
But he said the document still represented a "momentous step forward".
After the signing ceremony, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was similarly upbeat, saying the charter would pave the way for closer ties between member states.
"To make Asean strong and relevant, we must accelerate and deepen regional integration," he said.
"The Asean charter is a crucial step in this process."
The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The document, agreed by the 10 member states at a summit in Singapore, sets out Asean's principles and rules for the first time in its 40-year history.
But the signing ceremony took place amid continued condemnation of the rights record of Asean member Burma.
Critics say the charter will not rein in Burma's military regime.
"Of course there has been some watering down" - Ali Alatas, Ex-foreign minister of IndonesiaThe generals sparked international outrage when they violently suppressed anti-government protests in September - killing at least 15 people and imprisoning thousands more.
The controversy continued at the summit, where host nation Singapore had invited the UN's special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to make a speech.
Burmese officials objected, and gained the support of the eight other member nations, blocking Mr Gambari's briefing.
Earlier, a senior US official had warned that Asean's credibility was at stake over its handling of the crisis in Burma.
'Momentous step'
One of the most significant pledges in the charter is to set up a regional human rights body.
But critics say it will have limited impact as it will not be able to punish governments that violate the human rights of their citizens.
Negotiators rejected some more radical plans for the charter - such as enabling sanctions and possible expulsions against member states which seriously breached agreements.
"Of course there has been some watering down," former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, who helped draft the charter, told the Associated Press.
But he said the document still represented a "momentous step forward".
After the signing ceremony, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was similarly upbeat, saying the charter would pave the way for closer ties between member states.
"To make Asean strong and relevant, we must accelerate and deepen regional integration," he said.
"The Asean charter is a crucial step in this process."
The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
10 comments:
Oh good, I am glad that they all agreed. To me, that is a miracle to see 10 Asians agree on so many points.
Now, priority one should be to create jobs, jobs, jobs, for all ASEAN members. We (Asian) must looked at lack of jobs as a human rights violation because everyone has the right to work to feed their family. Once that is done, all other issues such as corruption, crime, drug, ..., will be a piece of cake to tackle.
In the photo, it's not Vietnamese president, but prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
they all look constipated.
Most of these men are Communist or Al-quita supporters?. Don't count on too much improving. They still don't know what they're doing. It will take another 100 years to get Burma up and runing the way it should be. Shame on The Asian race.
Philipine isn't much help to The United States. Poor Thailand, it must so hard to stand alone among the wofves.
The countries who blocked the UN representative not to give a speech are those countries who are the dictorship and they abused the people such as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In Chinese world, ganster is the predominent system to control, and everyone knows that.Gangster is now set up in a big picture, ASEAN gang.There are political and economical benefits for this locking in process, and the big brother CHINA is always behind that.
However these countries are members of UN, therefore international human rights commitment is imperative, unless they have their own definition of human rights.
Asian's Human Rights is the True Human Rights for Asian people, while Westerner's Human Rights is only to cause destruction and suffering in Asia.
Where is leav (laos), outofdated country?
The other hand of Hun Sen should grap onto his nuts since he got no one else to hold.
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