VIDEO: Police State At Work During ASEAN Summit Wednesday, Nov 21 2007
ASEAN Summit 2007 and Police State 3:41 pm
Is it just me or has the ASEAN Charter disappeared?? Wednesday, Nov 21 2007
ASEAN Summit 2007 1:30 pm
Just yesterday the ASEAN charter was available on the summit’s website. Today, its not there anymore.
The ASEAN Charter section at the summit’s website doesn’t have it either.
Over at the ASEAN secretariat’s website, there’s a media release about the charter but not the actual charter itself.
Well, there’s always the final draft which was leaked weeks before it was officially signed, released…and removed.
ASEAN Human Rights Body Told To Protect Members From Foreign Interference Wednesday, Nov 21 2007
ASEAN Summit 2007 and Human Rights and Police State 12:56 pm
AP Exclusive: ASEAN human rights body told to protect members from foreign interference
By Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer, 21 Nov 2007
SINGAPORE - A human rights body to be set up by Southeast Asian nations should not intervene in domestic human rights problems, but instead protect countries from foreign meddling, according to confidential recommendations by the region’s diplomats.
The recommendations were made in a report seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday. It was commissioned by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose leaders adopted Tuesday a landmark charter , which among other things calls for setting up a human rights agency.
The report’s mandate was to list out the agency’s powers and duties.
Its recommendations confirm that the human rights agency would be a toothless body with no power to rein in blatant violators such as Myanmar.
The report’s contents reveal the extent of ASEAN’s reluctance to hold any of its members accountable - or to shame them - for outright human rights violations such as the Myanmar junta’s recent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in September that killed at least 15 people.
The international community has condemned the junta for its refusal to restore democracy and release Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years. ASEAN has also been criticized for not doing enough to pressure Myanmar’s military leaders.
The human rights body, to be comprised of representatives from ASEAN countries, should draft a “long-term roadmap” for the promotion of human rights, according to the report prepared by a task force, led by Singapore.
Such a body should also have “respect for national independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity of all ASEAN member states,” it said.
The task force recommended that the human rights body should uphold ASEAN’s bedrock policy forbidding member countries from interfering in one another’s domestic affairs - an edict Myanmar has often invoked to parry criticisms.
The report also says the rights body should oppose attempts by foreign countries to interfere in any Southeast Asian country’s human rights problems.
The agency should “be faithful to ASEAN and its common interests and oppose external influence attempting to interfere in the human rights issues of any ASEAN member state,” the task force said.
The body should conduct consultations and a public campaign on rights promotion and consider drafting an ASEAN declaration on human rights, it said.
The establishment of a human rights body had been the most contentious issue in the drafting of the ASEAN Charter because of strong opposition from Myanmar.
A Myanmar diplomat, Thaung Tun, said that his country wants the human rights body to become a “consultative mechanism” and that it should not “shame and blame” any ASEAN nation.
ASEAN’s members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
SDP Leaders Released After Being Forced Into Police Van Wednesday, Nov 21 2007
ASEAN Summit 2007 and Burma/Singapore and Police State 11:14 am
Chee Siok Chin and John Tan released, SDP, 20 Nov 2007
Ms Chee Siok Chin and Mr John Tan were released after police held them without providing a reason when the two appeared outside the Shangri-la Hotel this afternoon.
They arrived at about 5.00 pm at Orchard Towers when they were told that a group of Burmese were gathering there to stage a protest march. Ms Chee and Mr Tan were there to lend support to the protesters.
By 5.45pm, both SDP leaders decided to take a walk towards Shangrila Hotel as there were no protesters in sight.
As they approached Orchard Hotel, plainclothes police were seen scurrying to set up their video cameras and getting on their cell phones. As the two turned into Orange Grove Road, a group of police officers approached them and warned the duo that they were in a protected area and that they should turn back.
There were at least three other members of the public who walked past them towards the Shangri-la Hotel and they were not stopped or given any warning by the police.
Mr Tan and Ms Chee thanked the police for the warnings and walked on. About 100 m from the hotel, female police officers surrounded Ms Chee and prevented her from walking on.
At this point a senior police officer was summoned to the scene. He asked Ms Chee what her intention was walking towards the hotel. Ms Chee told the police that she was intending to have a meal there. Despite this, the police prevented the both of them from proceeding.
An unmarked police van then pulled up and Ms Chee was forced into the van. Mr John Tan was subsequently dragged into the same van. When asked if they had committed any offence, the woman officer by the name of Thean Siew Khin said no. When asked if they were under arrest, another officer Ng Chee Wei also said no.
So why were they being forced into this unmarked police van? None of the five police officers in the van could answer them.
When asked where the two were being taken, they said “your headquarters”. Ms Chee told them that her car was parked at Orchard Hotel and asked to be let off. She realised that the police were taking them to the former SDP headquarters along Serangoon Road.
After spending some 40 minutes in the van, the police finally realised that the SDP had moved out of the office in Serangoon Road. The driver was then given instructions to send Ms Chee and Mr Tan back to Orchard Hotel.
What right did the police have in stopping Ms Chee and Mr Tan from heading to the Shangri-la Hotel when other people were allowed to?
What right did the police have in man-handling the both and forcing them into a vehicle which was not even a police van (PA 2448J)?
Was it legal for the police to take them to a place against their will when they had not committed any offence?
Was this not a form of illegal detention?
Citizens of Singapore are supposed to be protected by the police. Instead Ms Chee and Mr Tan were harassed, discriminated against, and held without any reason.
(Video will be posted soon)
Activists Test Singapore With ASEAN Protests Wednesday, Nov 21 2007
ASEAN Summit 2007 and Burma/Singapore and Police State 1:10 am
SINGAPORE - Activists in Singapore challenged the city-state’s tough laws on public demonstrations at a regional summit Tuesday, with three separate incidents including a gathering of 40 Myanmar protesters.
Two members of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party were bundled into police vans and taken away from the area where Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders were holding their annual talks.
But in the biggest incident so far, some 40 Myanmar citizens held a large banner reading: “Listen to Burma’s Desires, Don’t Follow Junta’s Order” as they gathered at Singapore’s main shopping area on the Orchard Road strip.
Myanmar nationals in Singapore stage a standing protest along Orchard Road to protest against the Myanmar government during the 13th ASEAN summit on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2007 in Singapore. The police eventually came in and dispersed the crowd peacefully. (AP Photo/Stefen Chow)
Protesters stage a demonstration near the venue of the 13th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore November 20, 2007. About 40 Myanmar residents in Singapore took part in a protest against ASEAN’s non interference policy towards the Myanmar junta government. REUTERS/Tim Chong (SINGAPORE)
Protesters stage a demonstration near the venue of the 13th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore November 20, 2007. About 40 Myanmar residents in Singapore took part in a protest against ASEAN’s non-interference policy towards the Myanmar junta government. REUTERS/Tim Chong (SINGAPORE)
Protesters hold a banner during a demonstration near the venue of the 13th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore November 20, 2007. About 40 Myanmar residents in Singapore took part in a protest against ASEAN’s non-interference policy towards the Myanmar junta government. REUTERS/Tim Chong (SINGAPORE)
A protester holds a sign during a demonstration near the venue of the 13th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore November 20, 2007. About 40 Myanmar residents in Singapore took part in a protest against ASEAN’s non-interference policy towards the Myanmar junta government. REUTERS/Tim Chong (SINGAPORE)
Protesters hold up signs during a demonstration near the venue of the 13th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore November 20, 2007. About 40 Myanmar residents in Singapore took part in a protest against ASEAN’s non-interference policy towards the Myanmar junta government. REUTERS/Tim Chong (SINGAPORE)
Myanmar nationals in Singapore stage a standing protest along Orchard Road to protest against the Myanmar government during the 13th ASEAN summit on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2007 in Singapore. The police eventually came in and dispersed the crowd peacefully. (AP Photo/Stefen Chow)
It was one of the largest public protests seen in recent memory in Singapore, which has tight rules against demonstrations.
But in a soft approach that has characterised police tactics so far, the protesters dispersed peacefully after some 20 police officers approached them following 15 minutes of their rally and asked if they had finished.
It was the latest in a series of protests against Myanmar’s military regime, which is under fire for its violent campaign to shut down mass anti-government demonstrations in its main city Yangon in September.
Earlier Tuesday, four Singapore activists were barred from delivering a greeting card bearing the image of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the ASEAN summit.
Wearing T-shirts with the message, “We pursue peace, justice and democracy for Burma”, they proceeded down Orchard Road under the watchful eye of police.
When they reached the approach road to the heavily guarded hotel where the meeting is being held, they were stopped by police who refused to let them pass and arranged for an ASEAN official to collect the card.
Measuring about two feet (60 centimetres), it contained about 40 signatures and messages which organisers said were mostly from Myanmar people.
“What has been done in Burma should not be condoned,” said one of the protesters, Chia Tilik.
On Monday, another group of nine foreign students from Singapore universities tested the city-state’s laws, which ban protests of five or more people without a permit, by marching in small groups along Orchard Road.
Carrying candles and wearing the same red T-shirts as Tuesday’s group, they later dispersed without incident.
