Asian leaders launch rights watchdog

Southeast Asian leaders faced fierce criticism on Friday after they launched a widely derided human rights body and barred activists from a key meeting at a regional summit.

Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva attends the opening ceremony of the Asean summit in Hua Hin. Southeast Asian leaders faced fierce criticism after they launched a widely derided human rights body and barred activists from a key meeting at a regional summit.

A war of words between host Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia over the fate of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra also dealt a blow to efforts to foster economic and political unity at the annual meeting.

Around 18,000 troops and dozens of armoured vehicles were deployed for the opening of the summit in the luxury beach resort of Hua Hin after it was twice postponed by anti-government protests.

Heads of state from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are holding talks before meeting their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand at the weekend.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the new rights commission against criticism that it is toothless to deal with members that breach its rules -- such as army-ruled Burma and communist Vietnam and Laos.

"The establishment of the commission is yet another significant milestone in the evolution of Asean," Abhisit said.

But the launch was marred by a row over the exclusion of rights activists from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore who were meant to meet Asean leaders at Hua Hin to discuss the new watchdog.

"This is an outrageous development," said Debbie Stothard of the independent Asean People's Forum, which nominated the activists. "It is a rejection of civil society and of the democratic process by which they were selected."

The banned representative from the Philippines, Roman Catholic nun Crescencia Lucero, said she was "very disappointed". Several other angry delegates later boycotted the meeting.

The new commission has also drawn fire for focusing on the promotion of rights rather than actual protection in the region of nearly 600 million people.

The United Nations on Thursday urged leaders to make it a "credible" body.

Burma is likely to come under the spotlight at the summit for its continued detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but it regularly gets an easier ride from its regional neighbours than the West would like.

The United States recently embarked on a major policy shift to re-engage Burma's junta after decades of hostility, but has said it will not ease sanctions until there is progress on democracy and human rights.

Tensions between Asean members meanwhile exploded into the open after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen invited the fugitive Thaksin to seek refuge in his country and become his economic adviser.

The two countries have had several skirmishes in the past year over a disputed border temple.

Abhisit warned Hun Sen against being a "victim or pawn" of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives in exile to avoid a jail term for graft, and ridiculed Hun Sen's comparison of Thaksin with the detained Suu Kyi.

Asian leaders at the summit are later expected to turn their attention towards growing economic integration, especially with China, and plans to establish an EU-style economic community by the year 2015.

The leaders will sign a host of agreements on economic and other issues including disaster management, communications and food security in the rapidly changing region.

They are also expected to urge rich nations to take on the burden of tackling carbon emissions ahead of a December meeting in Copenhagen, where the world will try to hammer out a new climate treaty.

The Asean summit was originally to be held in the popular tourist destination of Pattaya in April but anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters loyal to Thaksin stormed the venue halfway through.

Foreign leaders were forced to flee, some of them by helicopter or boat. Diplomats said Asian nations, led by China and Japan, demanded to see full security plans from Thailand before committing to this weekend's summit.