Asian Regimes Appear to Use War on Terror To Stem Dissent
International Herald Tribune
November 21, 2001
Michael Richardson 

An increasing number of Asian governments are using the U.S.-led campaign against global terrorism to justify repression of separatism and other political dissent even when it is nonviolent, human rights activists charge.

The crackdown is being led by the region's largest and most populous nations — China, India and Indonesia — all of which are trying to quell ethnic and religious groups that want to break away.

Asian countries say that, in acting against separatists, they are following the example of the United States, Britain and other Western states that are curbing civil liberties to protect their people from terrorist attack.

When the United Nations human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, visited China this month and expressed concern about the mistreatment of people in Xinjiang and Tibet — whom Beijing has branded as separatists — she was rebuffed by Chinese officials, including President Jiang Zemin.

China's moves to prevent Xinjiang and Tibet from breaking away to form independent states were part of the global anti-terror battle and "no double standards should be pursued here," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao.

But political opponents of governments in Asia worry that the drive against terrorism is being used as a catch-all against any dissent that is considered a threat to ruling regimes.

"Where there is now a strong global attack on terrorism, of course it is much easier for the government to take additional repressive measures," said Syed Hassan Ali, president of the opposition Malaysian People's Party.

The deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said recently that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States have shown the value of Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which enables the government to take preventive measures against threats.

The act, which allows suspects to be detained without trial for as long as two years at a time, is similar to one in place in Singapore, where the government said recently it is working on a new concept of domestic security that will be based on closer cooperation between the military and the police to prevent terrorists threats.

In Malaysia, the security act has been used to detain supporters of a jailed former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, as well as members of the main opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia, which wants to establish a strict Islamic state in what is now a multireligious country.

"The war against terrorism has been a heaven-sent opportunity for some governments in Asia to justify ongoing repression against government critics," said Sidney Jones, the Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The result of the crackdown in Asia, some analysts said, may be a significant surge in human rights abuses and a rollback of democratic reform across a region that traditionally has looked to authoritarian government in times of instability and economic hardship.

In India, the focus has been on Kashmir and the northeastern state of Manipur, the latter in cooperation with the Burmese Army. More than 200 separatist rebels from Manipur have been arrested in counterinsurgency operations by the Burmese Army in recent weeks, Indian military officials in the area have reported.

The Indian government is on the verge of enacting the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, which already is in effect temporarily, pending action by Parliament.

The law gives the Indian police sweeping powers of arrest and detention and has been criticized strongly by civil rights groups and opposition parties.

In Indonesia, human rights activists said that the military is using the global campaign against terrorism to justify an escalation of the army campaign to contain and to neutralize separatists in the resource-rich provinces of Aceh and Papua, formerly Irian Jaya.

Critics charge that, despite paying lip service to the notion that the battle against terrorism must not be an excuse to persecute minorities, the United States is muting its previously outspoken protection of human rights in countries like China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, which are regarded by Washington as important allies in the global fight against terror.

"Just as the U.S. has grown silent over Russian abuses in Chechnya, Chinese abuses in Tibet and Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, so it will play down problems in Indonesia," said Geoff Mulherin, an associate at the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney. "In the post-Sept. 11 world, national self-interest is triumphing over the embrace of human rights."

But Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia said that the United States has been learning from his country how to combat terrorism and that the West, which once accused him of trampling on human rights, now is following him.

"It's no good taking action after the crime," Mr. Mahathir said. "We have to act in anticipation, and not in the usual manner, because having to find proof of a crime which has not yet been committed is difficult."

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