SOUTHEAST Asia's human rights record took a knock last year following Thailand's brutal crackdown on Muslim insurgents, the harassment of dissidents in Vietnam, resurgence of military power in Indonesia and denial of basic freedoms in Burma, Human Rights Watch revealed.
The steady erosion of respect for human rights in Thailand that has characterised Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's rule "accelerated sharply", the watchdog said in its annual report released yesterday.
It cited military repressions against a steadily escalating insurgency in the country's predominantly Muslim southern provinces.
The revolt culminated in the death of 86 protesters at the hands of security forces last October and a retaliatory spate of deadly bombings and beheadings of prominent Buddhists, apparently by Muslim insurgent groups.
Since the area was placed under martial law in January last year, at least 550 people have been killed."Thai security forces, increasingly able to act with impunity, engaged in brutal crackdowns against insurgents in the south," the New York-based HRW said.
It also highlighted what it called government pressure and intimidation on Thailand's once-thriving human rights community.
Thailand's neighbour Burma remains one of the most repressive countries in Asia, despite promises for political reform and national reconciliation by its authoritarian military Government.
Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest and the activities of her political party, the National League for Democracy, remain curtailed.
The watchdog also accused the military regime in Rangoon of using internationally outlawed tactics in continuing conflicts with ethnic minority rebel groups, including "extrajudicial execution, rape, torture, forced relocation of villages and forced labour".
Indonesia experienced its first direct presidential election last year, marking another step towards full democratisation, but significant barriers to the rule of law and human rights remain in place, HRW said.
Pressing human rights concerns in Indonesia included the resurgent power of the military in social and political affairs, and accusations of atrocities and abuses in the restive provinces of Aceh and Papua.
The report also expressed worries about "disturbing signs of a return to intimidation of the press and criminalisation of dissent".
In Vietnam, human rights conditions, already dismal, worsened, the group said. The Government tolerates little public criticism of the Communist Party or statements calling for pluralism, democracy or a free press, jailing many dissidents.
Prominent human rights concerns in Malaysia include arbitrary detention of alleged militants under the draconian Internal Security Act, restrictions on media freedom, constraints on judicial independence and abuses against refugees and migrants. More than 80 detainees are being held under the ISA without charge.
In Cambodia, authorities continue to ban or disperse most public demonstrations. Politicians and journalists critical of the Government face violence and intimidation.
In addition, the judiciary remains weak and subject to political influence while trafficking of women and children by networks protected or backed by police or government officials is rampant.