Australia urged to get tough on human rights

Make it a prominent issue at Asean summit, say campaigners

SYDNEY: Australia must avoid a “dance with dictators” when it hosts Asean leaders at a special summit this week, and should make human rights a prominent issue, campaigners say.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will welcome heads of government or state from nine of the 10 Association of South-East Asian Nations to Sydney from today, including Cambodian strongman Hun Sen and Myanmar’s under-fire leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a no-show, citing more pressing developments at home as he faces international censure over a brutal drug war that has left thousands dead.

Australia was among several countries to raise concern about his crackdown at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last year.

This weekend’s meeting, initiated by Canberra, is focused on economics and counter-terrorism, but Turnbull has been urged to use the opportunity to publicly raise human rights issues.

“Shutting one’s eyes and hoping that closer trade and security ties will somehow magically transform abusive governments into rights- respecting ones doesn’t work,” said Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson.

“The Asean summit shouldn’t just be an opportunity to dance with dictators, but a chance to publicly press them over horrific human rights abuses across the region.”

A military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that began in August has seen nearly 700,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority flee to Bangladesh, with pressure mounting on Aung San Suu Kyi after a top UN rights expert warned this week the situation bore “the hallmarks of genocide”.

The Nobel Prize winner is due to stay in Australia for bilateral talks after the summit.

Amnesty International’s director for South-East Asia and the Pacific James Gomez said Australia and Asean leaders needed to take a strong stand against what was happening on their doorstep.

“The human rights crisis in Rakhine State, and Myanmar as a whole, must be top of the agenda this weekend in Sydney,” he said.

Hun Sen’s attendance is not guaranteed. He was rankled by reports he could face pressure over his government’s crackdown on democratic institutions and media freedoms, with protests planned by Australia’s sizable population of Cambodian refugees from the Khmer Rouge days.

The notoriously brash Hun Sen threatened to “shame” Canberra and block the release of a joint statement at the summit’s conclusion on Sunday if he was embarrassed.