SE Asia states must have own rights bodies-Malaysia

MANILA, July 31 (Reuters) Southeast Asia faces a hurdle in forming a regional human rights body because several governments, including Myanmar's military junta, have to first create their own human rights commissions, Malaysia's foreign minister said today.

''Before you talk about human rights outside, in the wider context, you must have your own human rights body,'' Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

Albar's comment came after foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed in principle to create a regional human rights body, pointing to the difficulties that lay ahead in setting up such a body in a region where rights groups say human rights are often suppressed.

Although they hailed it as a historic move, the ASEAN foreign ministers have said they only agreed that a provision allowing a human rights body to be created should be inserted into the first draft of a proposed constitution for the bloc.

No details on the scope or a start date were agreed.

Rosario Manalo, head of the task force drafting the charter, said the nature and shape of the human rights body would be based on terms of reference that would be drawn up after the charter was adopted in November by a leaders' summit.

''Those will be discussed, after the charter is adopted, by the experts on human rights bodies and everything that relates to human rights,'' Manalo told a news conference, adding a new group might be formed to discuss the terms of reference.

FINAL DRAFT ASEAN leaders will discuss and amend the final draft for the constitution at November's meeting, but Albar said the human rights provision would not be removed.

''We must be seen not to be allergic or not supportive of human rights,'' he told reporters.

He admitted that hammering out the terms of reference would take a long time. But calling for individual states to first set up their own human rights bodies would further delay it.

Myanmar, whose persecution of opposition groups and minorities has embarrassed ASEAN, and the communist one-party states of Laos and Vietnam were initially opposed to the idea of a regional rights organisation and are unlikely to be in any rush to set up their own national versions.

Only four ASEAN members have human rights bodies, but even within Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, local activists have complained that they are merely for show.

In Thailand, the human rights commission's only role is to watch for possible human rights abuses and produce an annual report. It cannot bring any legal action.

In the Philippines, the local human rights body has been unable to bring substantial pressure on the government even after the United Nations said earlier this year that soldiers were behind many of the deaths of left-wing activists.

This week, US-based Human Rights Watch said a new anti-terror law in the Philippines contained ''dangerous over-broad provisions that violate human rights standards''.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who is in Manila for the ASEAN Regional Forum security meeting later this week, said the decision to set up a regional human rights body was a good beginning at tackling a key issue.

''I think its a sign of maturity that's fast emerging in ASEAN,'' he told Reuters. ''They have confronted it and I think it holds bright promise for the future.'' REUTERS ARB BD1545