ASEAN pushing peace treaty with US

by Allen V Estabillo/MindaNews
Monday, 20 July 2009

PHUKET, Thailand (MindaNews/19 July) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is pushing to sign this week a peace treaty with the United States, a move that has drawn mixed responses from the cautious civil society in the region.Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), today said they expect State Secretary Hillary Clinton to officially sign the US accession to the regional bloc’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) during a scheduled visit here this week.

Clinton, who is visiting the region for the second time since February, will attend the 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) and the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum that will formally open here Monday.

“The US will sign and accede to the treaty and the information I got is they intend to do that this time,” he said in a press briefing at the Laguna Sheraton Grande Hotel here.

The US has been showing renewed interest in the ASEAN during the past seven months after distancing itself from the regional bloc for several years.

Surin said the US planned accession to the treaty will be good for Southeast Asia as he cited the latter as “an important player and a backdrop of confidence and stability” in the region.
The TAC, which was established in 1976 by the founding members of the ASEAN, is mainly aimed at promoting peace and stability in the region.

ASEAN is composed of Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The treaty was amended in 1987 by a protocol to open the document for accession by non-ASEAN states that now include Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Russia, and India.
“Our engagement with the US is very important for confidence, stability and security of the region,” he said.

But Carlo Cleofe, information advocacy and international lobby officer of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), cautioned Southeast Asian leaders on Saturday against rushing into any engagements with the US as he urged them to carefully scrutinize first the Western superpower’s interests in the region.

He said Southeast Asia should take as a precaution the “problematic” relationship between the Philippines and the US during the past decades.

“It raises a lot of concern for human rights in the light of the US war on terrorism that is concentrated mainly in Mindanao,” he said in a press conference at the Twin Palms Hotel here Saturday.

Cleofe, who was among the civil society leaders closely watching the ongoing final deliberations on the terms of reference of the proposed ASEAN human rights body, cited the case of the Philippines’ earlier enactment of the Human Security Act of 2007, an anti-terrorism law influenced by the US war on terror.

The Human Security Act essentially made terrorism a crime and allowed authorities to arrest terror suspects without warrants and temporarily detain them even without formal charges, provisions which critics described as gross violations of basic human rights.

“We understand the mandate of our government in fighting terrorism but I don’t think they have to suspend or violate basic human rights to this end,” he said.

Rafendi Djamin, convenor of the solidarity for Asia People’s Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights, said that while they remain cautious on the issue, he feels ASEAN may have to take a chance on the leadership of US President Barack Obama.

“The US has a new government and it has continued to revisit its policies for the region, including the Myanmar issue,” he said.

The US government has been reviewing its policies on Myanmar even as it continues to encourage its ruling military government to talk with their opposition leaders, release political prisoners, specifically democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and open up to the outside world.
“There’s a reason for us to hope and be positive that these US overtures might bring some changes in the region. I believe bringing superpower influence is not going to be the main approach of the Obama administration for ASEAN,” he added. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)