News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar, page 26

Plans to create a regional human rights body for the ten-nation South-east Asian bloc are threatening to expose the gulf that separates countries that seek to respect political and civil liberties and the notorious violators.

South-east Asian governments are examining the possibility of using a seven-year-old regional mechanism, known as the ‘’Bali Process,’’ to find an answer to minority Muslim Rohingyas fleeing ethnic cleansing in military-ruled Burma.

In a nod towards greater engagement with people’s organisations, a summit of South-east Asian leaders in this resort town will slightly extend its customary face-to-face with civil society representatives.

Burma’s military regime has set a tough challenge for regional leaders to grapple with when they gather for a summit over the weekend in this resort town south of Bangkok.

It happened decades ago when this region was gripped by the fallout of the United States’ war in Vietnam. But the ‘boat people’ phenomenon is back, and this time it has to do with Burma’s Muslim Rohingyas fleeing harsh realities at home.

To be a lawyer in military-ruled Burma is to court danger, invite arrest and risk being jailed in the country’s notorious prisons.

The presence of East Asian human trafficking victims in places as far-removed as Southern Africa and Central and South America confirm the ease with which modern merchants of slavery exploit international air travel.

An experiment in international justice finally gets under way on Feb. 17 when a war crimes tribunal begins in Cambodia to prosecute the notorious jailer of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

U.S. energy giant Chevron is under fire for failing to disclose the amount of money it allegedly paid to secure rights to drill for offshore oil in corruption-ridden Cambodia.

A United Nations special envoy ended his seventh visit to Burma this week facing a tall order: secure freedom for some 2,100 political prisoners in the military-ruled country as preliminary to meaningful political reform.