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On June 16,2013 Vietnamese police defrocked/tortured Khmer-Krom monk Ven. Ly Chanda of Prey Chop Temple in Lai Hoa, Vinh Chau, Soc Trang province. June 20,2013 Venerable Thach Thuol and Abbot Temple Lieu Ny of Ta Set temple (Soc Trang-Khleang province) defrocked and imprisoned in Prey Nokor (Saigon) city by the Viet authorities. In Phnor Dach (Cau Ngang) district, Preah Trapang/Tra Vinh) Khmer Krom prohibited from watching Cambodian TV signals.

INSIGHT-Conflict looms in South China Sea oil rush

REUTERS - By Randy Fabi and Manuel Mogato

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines, Feb 28 (Reuters) - When Lieutenant-General Juancho Sabban received an urgent phone call from an oil company saying two Chinese vessels were threatening to ram their survey ship, the Philippine commander's message was clear: don't move, we will come to the rescue.

Within hours, a Philippine surveillance plane, patrol ships and light attack aircraft arrived in the disputed area of Reed Bank in the South China Sea. By then the Chinese boats had left after chasing away the survey ship, Veritas Voyager, hired by U.K.-based Forum Energy Plc.

But the tension had become so great Forum Energy chief Ray Apostol wanted to halt two months of work in the area.

"They were so close to finishing their work. I told them to stay and finish the job," Sabban, who heads the Western Command of the Philippine Armed Forces, told Reuters at his headquarters in Puerto Princesa on Palawan island.

Over the next few days, President Benigno Aquino would call an emergency cabinet meeting, file a formal protest with China, and send his defense secretary and armed forces chief to the Western Command in a show of strength.

The March 2011 incident is considered a turning point for the Aquino administration. The president hardened his stance on sovereignty rights, sought closer ties with Washington and has quickened efforts to modernise its military.

A year later, Forum Energy is planning to return. Top company executives told Reuters the company intends to sail to Reed Bank within months to drill the area's first well for oil and natural gas in decades, an event that could spark a military crisis for Aquino if China responds more aggressively.

The U.S. military has also signalled its return to the area, with war games scheduled in March with the Philippine navy near Reed Bank that China is bound to view as provocative.

"This will be a litmus test of where China stands on the South China Sea issue," said Ian Storey, a fellow at the Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. "They could adopt the same tactics as they did last year and harass the drilling vessels, or they might even take a stronger line against them and send in warships."

A decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea is entering a new and more contentious chapter, as claimant nations search deeper into disputed waters for energy supplies while building up their navies and military alliances with other nations, particularly with the United States.

Reed Bank, claimed by both China and the Philippines, is just one of several possible flashpoints in the South China Sea that could force Washington to intervene in defense of its Southeast Asian allies.

OBAMA PIVOT

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to reassure regional allies that Washington would serve as a counterbalance to a newly assertive China, part of his campaign to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy more intensely on Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama brought up the South China Sea at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bali last November, and had a surprise one-one-one with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the subject, although Beijing had insisted the issue should not be on the agenda at all.

"As Southeast Asian nations run to the U.S. for assistance, Beijing increasingly fears that America aims to encircle China militarily and diplomatically," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Northeast Asia Director for the International Crisis Group. "Underlying all of these concerns is the potential that discoveries of oil and natural gas beneath the disputed sections of the South China Sea could fuel conflict."

The area is thought to hold vast untapped reserves of oil and natural gas that could potentially place China, the Philippines, Vietnam and other claimant nations alongside the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Qatar.

Manila is beefing up its tiny and outdated naval fleet and military bases, adding at least two Hamilton-class cutters this year and earmarking millions of dollars to expand its Ulugan Bay naval base in Palawan.

It's no match for China's fleet, the largest in Asia, which boasts 62 submarines, 13 destroyers and 65 frigates, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

China last month launched the fourth of its new 071 amphibious landing ships that are designed to quickly insert troops to trouble spots, disputed islands, for example.

The U.S. Navy has announced it will deploy its own new amphibious assault vessels, the Littoral Combat Ships, to the "maritime crossroads" of the Asia-Pacific theater, stationing them in Singapore and perhaps the Philippines.

Washington's renewed presence in the Philippines, a former U.S. colony that voted to remove American naval and air bases 20 years ago, follows the U.S. announcement last year of plans to set up a Marine base in northern Australia and possibly station warships in Singapore.

Manila is talking about giving Washington more access to its ports and airfields to re-fuel and service U.S. warships and planes. The two countries will conduct war games off Palawan island in late March -- focusing on how to deal with a takeover of an oil rig in the South China Sea.

'SOUNDS OF CANNONS'

China has warned oil companies not to explore in the disputed South China Sea, over which Beijing says it has "indisputable sovereignty". Chinese ships have repeatedly harassed vessels that have tried.

After ExxonMobil discovered hydrocarbons off the coast of Danang in central Vietnam, an area also claimed by China, one of China's most popular newspapers warned in October that nations involved in territorial disputes should "mentally prepare for the sounds of cannons" if they remain at loggerheads with Beijing.

Despite the threats, the Philippines and Vietnam have continued to explore for oil and natural gas further offshore in the South China waters, driven by persistently high oil prices and more advanced deepsea technology.

The Philippines has reported as many as 12 incidents of Chinese vessels intruding into its sovereign waters in the past year, an unusually high number, Sabban said.

In one of the most serious incidents last October, a Philippine navy ship seized Chinese fishing boats after colliding with one of them, prompting protests from China for their return.

At least 12 Chinese fishermen have been arrested over the past year. Half of them remain in detention in Palawan.

"China has no right to tell us that we should first ask for permission from them to explore the area," Sabban said. "We have explored that area back in the 1970s, so why can't we explore it now? We knew that there is a substantial deposit of natural gas even before all of these things started."

Manila says Reed Bank, about 80 nautical miles west of Palawan island at the southwestern end of the Philippine archipelago, is within the country's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing, however, believes it is part of the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles, claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

While China prefers to solve the disputes one-on-one with its smaller Southeast Asian neighbour, Washington has sought to internationalize the issue, given that half the world's merchant fleet tonnage sails across the sea and around these islets each year, carrying $5 trillion worth of trade.

"If we don't develop our positions in our exclusive economic zone, then we will only be giving it away and will be at the losing end," Eugenio Bito-Onon, the mayor of Kalayaan islands in the Spratlys, told Reuters at a coffee shop in Puerto Princesa.

China's oil exploration has been limited in the South China Sea with less than 15 deep sea wells drilled so far. Chinese offshore oil and gas specialist CNOOC Ltd, along with international partners Canada's Husky Energy and U.S. company Chevron Corp., plan to step up exploration in the area but focus mainly in the north, staying away from the politically sensitive waters to the south.

Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the South China Sea range from 28 billion to as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a March 2008 report. That would be equivalent to more than 60 years of current Chinese demand, under the most optimistic outlook, and surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.

OIL MANDATE

General Sabban said the necessary patrol ships and surveillance planes will be provided to protect Forum Energy's exploration vessels in Reed Bank.

"We have a mandate to protect all oil companies exploring in our territory," he said. "We don't exactly escort them, but we are in the area to deter any outside force from harassing them."

Forum Energy, whose majority shareholder is the Philippines' top miner Philex Mining Corp., plans to spend around $80 million through 2013 to explore the Sampaguita gas field in Reed Bank, covered by Service Contract 72.

The field is estimated to hold at least 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with the potential for five times that amount. That is at least 25 percent bigger than the nearby Malampaya gas field, operated by Royal Dutch Shell, which fuels half of the power needs for the country's main island of Luzon.

The Philippines is eager to further increase its natural gas production to meet growing domestic demand for gas-fired power, which is estimated to surge to 5,000 megawatts per day in 2016, from the current 2,700 megawatts.

"There is no question that there is gas there. We already know one or two locations we would like to drill on," said Apostol, Forum Energy's president, in an interview. "If the first drill is a bonanza, there might be a need to drill back to back."

The company said it is closely coordinating its Reed Bank plans with the military and the energy department, hoping to send drill ships by the fourth quarter.

"We are aware of the implementation risks that have to be taken into account when we contract the drilling services," said Forum Energy's executive director Carlo Pablo. "We have to have plans in case of delays in operations, on mitigating cost overruns, and contractual penalties that may be imposed."

A flotilla of ships could soon follow Forum Energy in disputed waters, with Manila later this year awarding two offshore oil and gas exploration contracts in territory also claimed by China.

That could well keep the phones busy for Sabban and his sailors at Western Command for some time to come. (Reporting by Randy Fabi in Puerto Princesa and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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U.S. Assistant Secretary Campbell in Vietnam

Source: VOA News Feb 27,2012


Kurt Campbell
“We underscored quite clearly . . . the strong desire of the United States to have a better relationship with Vietnam,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell during his recent visit to Hanoi, Vietnam.
For the United States and Vietnam to go to the next level, it will require some significant steps on the part of Vietnam to address . . . human rights concerns, systemic challenges associated with freedom of expression, [and] freedom of organization,


The purpose of Assistant Secretary Campbell’s visit was to expand the scope and depth of our relations with Vietnam, and to explain to Vietnamese interlocutors the multi-faceted steps in the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, which includes strengthening our security partnerships with key partners in the region, advancing a stronger, multilateral engagement in the Association of South East Asian Nations’ Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit, and identifying ways to diversify the U.S. military posture in the Asia-Pacific region.


“While the United States is seeking a stronger role in the Asia-Pacific region, we also believe it is essential to have a strong relationship between the United States and China,” Assistant Secretary Campbell said. “We recognize that every country in Asia desires a better relationship with China. We understand that, we support that. We think that’s an essential feature of the maintenance of peace and stability.”


On enhancing existing U.S. - Vietnamese military relations, Assistant Secretary Campbell said, “Our desire is to take this process in a step-by-step manner. . . . We would like to see . . . a greater exchange of views and dialogue . . . to build trust and confidence . . . Then we would very much like to see some of these changes that I’m talking about in . . . human rights so that we will be able to see a more fulsome relationship between our two sides.”


Vietnam is a key country in the Asia Pacific region, and one with which the United States will be working closely in the decades to come. “That’s . . . why . . . we talked about a variety of foundations for . . . [our] relationship, [which includes] the economic relationship, the people-to-people interactions, [and] the . . . consultations that will be necessary to advance our common concerns in multilateral forums.” Assistant Secretary Campbell said in conclusion. “I’m confident that there is a deeper recognition . . . that our role in Asia is inseparable from our own prosperity and security, and . . . that’s in the best interest of all involved.”
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Vietnam religious minorities face persecution says activist

Source: GENEVA (AFP) - Feb 21,2012

Authorities in Vietnam deliberately persecute and discriminate against religious minorities, a Vietnamese human rights campaigner told the United Nations on Monday.

'The indigenous Montagnards and the Hmongs are among the ethnic groups who have borne the brunt of the Vietnamese government's discriminatory policies,' Vo Van Ai, president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said.

He cited the cases of members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), the Hoa Hao - a Chinese minority -, the Cao Dai and Buddhist Khmer Krom who face persecution.

Mr Ai told the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva that these minorities 'are subject to imprisonment, torture, house arrest, police surveillance, intimidation and harassment in their daily lives.' The head of the UBCV, Thich Quang Go, is 'still under house arrest at Thanh Minhh Zen monastery after nearly 30 years in various forms of detention for the peaceful advocacy of religious freedom'.

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Bloggers in Repressive Vietnam

VOA: Doug Bernard | Washington DC
Vietnam Cracks Down On The Internet And Free Expression


Dieu Cay knows the risks and rewards of being a blogger in Vietnam. On the risk side, he’s been tossed in and out of prison cells over the last five years, today finding himself detained once more.
His reward? He’s still among the most popular online figures in his nation.  ‘Điếu cày‘ is a pen name meaning “peasant’s water pipe” in Vietnamese. The real person is Nguyen Van Hai, and he started blogging in 2007, just about the moment the Internet began spreading rapidly across the country. Unhappy about China’s policies in Tibet and the Spratly Islands, Nguyen started using his blog (now no longer viewable) to organize protests of the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

“BlogDieuCay” began quietly, but soon drew a lot of attention. Other Vietnamese citizens, unhappy with various Chinese policies, also began protesting the torch relay. Still others began speaking out online, inspired to start writing about Vietnam’s religious discrimination, land rights issues, or general corruption. In just a few months Nguyen was joined by fellow bloggers ‘AnhBa SG‘ (real name Phan Thanh Hai) and former Communist Party member Ta Phong Tan to start the “Club for Free Journalists.” Weekly viewership of their blogs skyrocketed.

That’s when authorities stepped in. In late April 2009, Nguyen was arrested on tax fraud, a charge many considered trumped up. (Phan and Ta were also arrested on unrelated crimes.) He was subsequently released and began blogging again, only to be repeatedly harassed by police. In October 2010 he was again detained by police, and has not been seen by anyone since. Officially, he’s charged with violating Article 88: “Conducting Propaganda Against the State.” Unofficially, many more call it simply “Blogging While Vietnamese.”
“Abusing Democratic Freedoms”

Nguyen isn’t alone. In just the last few months, as many as nine journalists and 33 bloggers have been jailed in what has become Vietnam’s largest ever crackdown on free speech online.
“It’s bad…it’s very bad,” says U.S. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia. “The American ambassador (there) is a failure, the American embassy is no longer an island of freedom,” says an unsparing Wolf, condemning what he sees as an Obama administration that’s weak on human rights and freedom issues. “This administration has not done a very good job of speaking out,” says the long time rights advocate, “so these countries don’t believe that the Obama administration cares about these issues, and they feel they can do whatever they want.”

 Others see a different reason for the crackdown: a government motivated less by opportunism and more by fear.

“The government is threatened by the increasing use of the Internet by Vietnamese citizens,” says Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson. “With the expansion of the Vietnamese language Internet, their ability to control what people are reading and seeing has definitely diminished.”



Whatever the reason, there’s no doubting that Vietnamese are moving online in droves. In 2000, less than one percent of Vietnam’s population had access to the web. Ten years later, that number had bolted to 27 percent, and it’s likely higher today. Young Vietnamese crowd into Internet cafes and snatch up the latest smart phones (over 111 million mobile phones are registered in a nation with a population of 86 million). All those eyeballs online make for a declining consumption of state-controlled newspapers and broadcasts, and that, says Robertson, has Hanoi nervous:



“When you roll in what has happened in the Arab world, that has caused a great deal of concern by the Vietnamese government. They’re worried if they don’t try to correct the problem, try to control what is going out and control some of the more prominent bloggers or people sharing information, that this situation may somehow get out of control. That’s the core of the increasing crackdown we see by the government trying to go after the more prominent people making their views known, and harassing bloggers and harassing activists; not only trying to firewall their blogs or websites, but also the more traditional harassment: police going by, inviting people out to coffees or “chats,” going in and confiscating computers or cutting people off from the Internet by terminating their phone service.”



Nervous or not, Vietnamese authorities have clearly dropped the hammer recently on the nation’s most prominent bloggers and online activists. In addition to those detained, countless more are being monitored, forced offline or have had their computers seized.

The state has a grab bag of statutes that it can charge bloggers with violating. Most popular is Article 88, but there are many others, including Article 79 – “Subversion of the People’s Administration” – or the ironically termed Article 258: “Abusing Democratic Freedoms to Infringe the Interests of the State.” Whatever allegation is used, the punishments are tough: prison sentences of five to eight years.



“Playing an Easy and Hard Game.”

 Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 32 years old, is a mother in the central coastal city of Nha Trang. She was concerned about a controversial bauxite mining project nearby, and the Chinese partner on the project Chinalco. So in 2009 she began blogging about it, sharing news items or rumors she’d heard, her objections to the project, and what others were saying about similar projects.

Nguyen knew the dangers of blogging in Vietnam, and so adopted the pen name “Me Nam” – or “Mother Mushroom” in Vietnamese. People signed an online petition, and she printed shirts reading “Stop Bauxite – No China – Keep the country safe and clean.” Her blog became a smash success. That is, until the night of September 2, 2009, when 15 police agents smashed through her door and took her under arrest.

“The police arrested and kept me at prison for 10 days,” Nguyen tells VOA in an email interview. “Their reason for my temporary imprison(ment) is ‘abusing democratic freedom infringe upon national benefits.’”
After 10 days and no charges filed, Nguyen was released, but warned about continuing her blog. Despite that, she kept writing – posting her discontents with the government and its land policies. Since then she’s had police stationed outside her home, her landlord and employer have been pressured to fire her, she’s seen her family and friends harassed, and spent more time in jail.

Mother Mushroom says she, too, has noticed a marked increase in the level of harassment directed at her and her online colleagues. “Beside Dieu Cay and AnhBa SG, many young Catholic bloggers are still in jail,” she writes.

“I think that they are warning the others have to be careful when using blog to speak out the idea about the Communist Party’s policy. Being a Vietnamese blogger, it looks like playing an easy and hard game. It will be fine if you just write about the daily simple life. However, you should be arrested at any time if you step over the ‘sensitive areas.’ I still keep writing because it made me feel free in my mind, at least. And the most important thing, we do not feel human if we don’t have the right to speak our mind.”

Nguyen is free at the moment, but acknowledges, amid the current crackdown, that she might be next to be imprisoned. Asked why “Mother Mushroom” keeps writing, she writes simply “Who will speak if you don’t?”

Fighting a Losing Battle?


“Clearly the activists recognize that they’re pushing the edge and they’re potentially facing long prison terms if they push too hard,” says Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson:

“But when you talk to them, they’ll say very clearly ‘Look, I’ve done nothing wrong. This is my right to speak out.’ And in fact, they’re right. Vietnam has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which clearly contains an Article 19 guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression. So by saying ‘I’ve done nothing wrong,’ they’re not backing off on this, and the government is just forced to continue to tilt after these activists, to chase them and harass them, and ultimately is continuing to imprison them.”

Early in her term at the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called freedom of online expression a basic human right, and pledged the Obama administration would do everything possible to lift the new “digital Iron Curtain” that was falling on various nations around the world. But critics say that since then, little has been done to help, while the situation in countries like Vietnam has grown only worse.

“In the old days…everyone was singing from the same page, and that’s that we were going to advocate for human rights and religious freedom around the world no matter where it would be,” laments Congressman Wolf. “That’s really what has to be done now, but that’s the exact opposite of what’s being done today.”
With all the other foreign policy issues at stake in the U.S. presidential election this year, online freedom of speech and the persecution of Vietnamese bloggers isn’t likely to rate very high. But that’s not to say there isn’t hope.

Columbia University professor Anne Nelson recently traveled to Vietnam, and wrote of her impressions:

“We can’t underestimate the suffering — to say nothing of the nuisance — inflicted by Vietnam’s cyber-cop crackdowns. But at the same time, it appears they’re fighting a losing battle. Vietnam’s media audience is moving online rapidly, partly because they are constantly learning new techniques for outmaneuvering the authorities — and partly because the Communist Party’s traditional news media have failed to hold on to their audience and advertising base.”

As in neighboring China, Vietnam is seeking to have it both ways: expanding access to the web and wiring the nation for the future while limiting what its citizens can do and say online. It’s a tricky balance, and one technology is constantly shifting.

In the meantime, somewhere in Vietnam, Dieu Cay sits in a prison cell, awaiting his fate.
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Vietnamese Americans Wage Vigorous Human Rights Petition Drive



Source:BPSOS, News Report, Posted: Feb 21, 2012
Within two weeks, over sixty thousand Vietnamese-Americans with the support of human rights advocates from across the country have voiced their concern to President Obama, calling on the Administration to not expand trade with communist Vietnam at the expense of human rights.

The US Trade Representative, which reports directly to the President, is considering Vietnam's efforts to expand trade with the US through the Trans-Pacific Partnership and gain preferential tariffs on goods exported to the US through the Generalized System of Preferences. The petition asks President Obama to not decouple trade from human rights and seek the immediate and unconditional release of all detained and imprisoned champions of human rights as part of the trade negotiation with communist Vietnam. A list of 600 such prisoners is being compiled for presentation to the White House.

"With this petition drive, we would like to demonstrate our community's ability for self-mobilization around a common cause," said Truc Ho, President of SBTN who officially launched the petition drive on Feb 8, 2012.

The online petition drive makes use of the White House's "We The People" website. The petition must collect 25,000 endorsements within 30 days for the Administration to issue an official response. By the fourth day, the petition had already surpassed that threshold.

"Following the recent reforms in Burma, Vietnam has become the worst violator of human rights in Southeast Asia; the US and the world should shine the spotlight on its increasingly repressive regime," Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS, explained.

SBTN, BPSOS and many Vietnamese-American community organizations have set up stations in multiple cities across the country to assist community members faced with difficulties using the internet. Hundreds of bilingual college students and young professionals have signed up to volunteer at these stations.

A delegation of some 200 Vietnamese-Americans is being formed with representatives from all 50 states to present a hard copy of the petition to the White House on March 5. On the following day twice that number will meet with members of Congress or their staff to support the Vietnam Human Rights Act.

All American citizens and residents who care about human rights are asked to lend a hand and sign the online petition. [A petitioner needs to first open an account at https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions, then sign the petition at https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-expanding-trade-vietnam-expense-human-rights/53PQRDZH
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Laos and Vietnam: no to human rights and religious freedom because they create "chaos"

Leaked Document: Asean waters down human rights 
Friday, 17 February 2012 12:40 Mizzima News

A leaked draft of the Asean Human Rights Declaration obtained by Mizzima has lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the centerpiece of the human rights agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian States (Asean).

A working draft, written in January at the time of the first meeting of Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights on the Asean Human Rights Declaration held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, includes detailed comments by officials from Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The draft revealed a number of the Asean-member states – most notably Laos – are seeking to water down the declaration by proposing wording that would limit its scope and application, while officials from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, providing comment as a block of nations, proposed more progressive wording.

Laos has arguably taken the most hardl-line stance, placing conditions on a number of sections in the draft declaration.

Commenting on the duties and responsibilities of the Asean member States, Laos said the “realization of universal human rights” must be in the context of “regional and national particularities” such as political, economic, social, cultural, historical and religious backgrounds.

Laos’ position is contrary to the more expansive wording drafted by the Asean Secretariat that “…it is the duty of member states, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Laos is also proposing the inclusion of a “national security” and “public morality” trigger to override claims to universal human rights and freedoms, perhaps fearful of an erosion of national security and moral principles.

“The exclusive insistence on rights can result in conflict, division, and endless dispute and can lead to lawlessness and chaos,” Laos said.

While the secretariat’s original wording acknowledges rights shall be exercised with “due regard” to national security and contains no mention of “public morality,” Laos’ rewording would extend the reach of limitations, potentially enabling a member state to claim exemption from the Declaration where national security, public morality and other issues enacted in national laws permit.

“The exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose... to meet the just requirements of national security, public order, public health and public morality and the general welfare of the peoples in a democratic society,” Laos said.

Some member states appear to have accepted the inclusion of “public morality” as a limitation.

In other comments, Laos proposed limiting “the right to practice one’s religion or belief” with the condition that “advocacy or dissemination of religions or beliefs shall be in compliance with national law of each Asean Member State.”

Both Laos and Vietnam held reservations about the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to freely receive information. Laos added the qualification, “Freedom of expression carries with it special duty not to defame the reputation of others and incite hatred, discrimination, war, social division and violence.”

Laos is the most vigorous advocate for cementing state rights above claims to universal human rights and freedoms, with Malaysia and Vietnam making supporting comments.

“Each Asean member state has the right to pursue its own economic and social development and freely choose it s own political system which suits the historical culture and social realities and national values of each nation, based on the aspirations of its people without external interference or pressure in whatsoever forms,” Laos said.

And in a clear statement designed to shield trade and investment from the scope of the Declaration, Laos said, “Human rights should not be used as conditionality for extending official development assistance to, engage in trade with, and making investment in Asean-member states.”

Burma did not directly comment on the draft but did support the position of Laos “not to mention international binding instruments in this political declaration” and agreed with Laos which had “reservations in regards to the use of the term[s] ‘minority groups’ and ‘indigenous peoples’.”

The definition of who holds rights and freedoms under the Declaration appears to be contentious, with a number of member states providing views.

The draft stated, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, sexual identity, property, birth, disability or other status.”

However, socially conservative Brunei and Malaysia are opposed to the inclusion of “sexual identity” and Malaysia raised concerns about the definitions of “sex” and “other status” seeking to ensure they are “determined by Asean common values in the spirit of unity in diversity,” and not based on other internationally accepted definitions.

Thailand proposed changing “sexual identity” to the more progressive term “sexual orientation” to reflect the language of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Thailand also proposed that the phrase “gender identity” be included.

Of the other member states’ comments, Singapore took a relatively cautious approach, stating it has reservations about a number of issues notably that, “Primary education shall be compulsory and free,” and “A person’s nationality cannot be revoked or otherwise deprived if it will result in the person being stateless.”

Vietnam questioned the use of the word “freely” in a citizen’s right to participate freely in government and proposed removing “torture, enforced disappearance or other serious human rights violations” from the list of persecutions preventing a State from extraditing an asylum seeker.

The current draft also defines when the death penalty can be used. However, some member states oppose its inclusion.
The raft of changes proposed in the leaked draft will be a cause for concern among many civil society groups.

Worried by the possibility the declaration may fall below international standards under the guise of the “Asean way,” civil society’s position paper on the declaration submitted in June 2011 by the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA TF-AHR), a coalition of more than 70 nongovernmental organizations in Southeast, said:

“Under no circumstances may the standards for human rights in the AHRD fall below those provided by universal human rights instruments. Instead, ASEAN as a regional association should aspire to commit itself to higher standards of human rights and contribute to the advancement of the promotion and protection of human rights globally.”

Last month, Amnesty International criticized the Asean panel charged with drafting a human rights code saying it is working largely in secrecy and not consulting with human rights’ NGOs.

Asean officials say the Asean grouping hopes to finalize the draft of the rights charter in 2012. The final draft must be passed by consensus.
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US House moves to press Vietnam on rights

Source: AFP
WASHINGTON — US lawmakers moved forward Wednesday on a bill that would curb aid to Vietnam unless it improves its human rights record, raising concern over the treatment of dissidents and religious practitioners.

The proposal would block any increase in non-humanitarian US assistance beyond 2011 levels unless the State Department certifies that Vietnam has made "substantial progress" in respecting freedom of religion and expression and that the Hanoi government is working against human trafficking.

"It is imperative that the United States government send an unequivocal message to the Vietnamese regime that it must end its human rights abuses against its own citizens," Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who sponsored the bill, told a hearing.

A House subcommittee on human rights led by Smith approved the proposal with support from both major parties. The bill still needs passage by the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, and then the full House and Senate.

The House has approved the bill twice in previous sessions, but it has died in the Senate.

The draft bill seeks Vietnam's release of prisoners detained "for their peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, democracy and human rights" including outspoken Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly.

The proposal also voices concern about restrictions on press freedom and the treatment of Buddhist clergy and churches, including those of the minority Montagnard and Hmong ethnicities.

A Vietnamese woman, testifying last month to a House panel, accused Hanoi authorities of complicity in human trafficking after she was sent to a factory in Jordan where she said she worked day and night for little pay.

Vietnam and the United States have been building closer relations, putting aside bitter memories of war, amid friction between Hanoi and Beijing over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly called on Vietnam to address human rights concerns, although it has also pushed ahead with greater cooperation with Hanoi including in military exchanges.

The US Agency for International Development said that the United States provided $134 million for Vietnam in the 2010 fiscal year, more than half of it devoted to improving health and child survival. The agency requested $125 million for 2012.
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