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2ND LD: ASEAN leaders vow action to tackle impact of global financial crisis+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) HUA HIN, Thailand, Feb. 28_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING BACKGROUND ABOUT MULTILATERAL SWAP DEAL IN GRAFS 4-6) Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations began their annual meeting Saturday with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowing ASEAN action to address the impact of the global financial crisis in the region in partnership with other East Asian countries. "ASEAN is at the frontier of an economic battle and recovery. We will be severely tested from now on, both as a group and as a part of the broader Asian region," Abhisit said in his opening speech at the two-day summit, held at a beach resort some 200 kilometers south of Bangkok. "As the financial crisis deepens, the world will look towards our region for action and for confidence, which is exactly what we in ASEAN are set out to do," he said. Abhisit welcomed a recent decision by ASEAN finance ministers and counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea in Phuket to expand a regional pool of foreign reserves from around $80 billion to up to $120 billion as one of the measures to boost confidence and restore financial stability in the region. The expansion of the regional currency swap arrangement, which is to be coupled with a strengthening of the regional surveillance process, is due to be finalized in May when the 13 finance ministers meet in Bali to determine the actual allocation of funds by each country. Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to contribute 80 percent of the fund while the rest will be covered by 10 ASEAN countries. In his statement, the Thai premier, who is concurrently ASEAN chairman, also stressed the need "to make ASEAN more people-centered" as it transforms itself from a loose association of countries into a more rules-based organization, with the goal of realizing an ASEAN Community by 2015. He said plans to establish an ASEAN human rights body by this year to enhance promotion and protection of human rights in the region "will be a big step in this direction." "Protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms is a key feature of our community," he added. As part of efforts to promote people's participation in the ASEAN community-building process, Abhisit and other ASEAN leaders met prior to the opening ceremony with civil society representatives from member countries, which the Thai premier said he hopes will help create a sense of "ASEAN citizenship' among people of the region. But human rights activists said the governments of Cambodia and Myanmar prevented civil society representatives from their countries from participating in the dialogue, and they were able to meet only with Abhisit and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. Debbie Stothard of the activist group Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma said the two blocked activists, Khin Ohmar from Myanmar and Pen Somony from Cambodia, were told they could not attend the meeting because Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened to boycott the meeting if they were in attendance. Stothard said the Cambodian government appeared to have wanted a say over which civil society representative attended the meeting. Brunei, a sultanate state, did not send any such representative while a Lao activist decided not to join the dialogue for fear of persecution after returning home, said Wathshlah Naidu, a Malaysian activist from the International Women's Rights Action Watch. The head of the Thai Foreign Ministry's ASEAN Affairs Department Vitavas Srivihok denied there was any threat to boycott the first-ever dialogue between ASEAN leaders and representatives of civil society in the region. "The civil society delegation represented all the 10 member countries as a group. The invitation was not made in the name of individual nations," Vitavas said. Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the format of the leader's dialogue with ASEAN civil society was prearranged with consent from all ASEAN countries. "Thailand, as the host, initiated this first-ever dialogue with hope that the dialogue will continue," Tharit added. Myanmar pro-democracy activist Soe Aung said the proposed ASEAN human rights body would be meaningless if the governments do not respect people's basic rights. "They (ASEAN) have to make sure that the ASEAN human rights body allows the people's participation and respects the right of people. If not...ASEAN will not change at all," he said. Last December, the landmark ASEAN Charter entered into force. In the charter, the ASEAN members committed themselves to place people at the heart of the organization's agenda, whether it be by reducing poverty, mitigating the impact of natural disasters or addressing transnational crime. The document specifically calls for engagement with civil society organizations. Abhisit said that with the promulgation of the charter, "the over 570 million people of ASEAN have been awoken. They will demand their share, their ownership and their role in the ASEAN process." "We are destined to become a more integrated, more effective and more compassionate community that serves its most important stakeholder, namely, the peoples of ASEAN," he said, while vowing that ASEAN "will put peoples first -- in its vision, in its policies, and in its action plans." ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Copyright ? 2009 Kyodo News International, Inc. |