Asia Turmoil, Rights Link Made

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Asia Turmoil, Rights Link Made

By EDITH M. LEDERER
 .c The Associated Press  

LONDON (AP) - Human rights campaigners delivered a troubling message Thursday
to leaders at an Asia-Europe summit: Without respect for human rights, Asia's
economic crisis will never be solved. 

While leaders of the 25 nations dined at British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
residence, more than 300 activists gathered to listen to Nobel Peace Prize
laureates from East Timor, Myanmar and Tibet. 

Exiled East Timor resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta accused leaders at the
two-day Asia-Europe summit of ``ignoring the very root causes of the economic
debacle in Asia.'' 

``If they want to avoid turmoil, if they want to avoid bloody confrontation in
the streets, if they want to avoid violence, if they want to avoid revolution,
then they must address the root causes of these problems - and that is lack of
freedom, of democracy, of rule of law,'' said Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the
Peace Prize in 1996. 

He said East Timor, which Indonesia invaded and annexed in 1975, will continue
to survive and its people will ultimately win the right to self-determination.

``The next two or three years are going to see momentous changes, in
Indonesia, in Burma, in China,'' he said. 

In a videotape message smuggled out of Myanmar, fellow Nobel laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi expressed hope that her country would soon enjoy democratic rights. 

``It is time everybody stopped trying to separate human rights from
economics,'' she said. ``I do not think that economic policies can succeed in
the long run if they do not protect the rights of people.'' 

Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in
1990 elections, but the military government refused to allow Parliament to
convene and has maintained its grip on power. 

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Peace Prize who fled Tibet nearly 40 years
ago as China tightened it grip on Tibet, said in a video message that China
should be brought into the international circle. 

``The lies and mistakes of the past should be settled clearly and in a
friendly spirit,'' he said. ``Concealing the truth about China and insincere
flattery have no place. They will not help the image of China.'' 

At a China-EU summit Thursday, the EU told Prime Minister Zhu Rongji it
appreciates his efforts at economic reform but gently reminded him that
Beijing needs to do better on human rights.