Hill panel hears of worsening rights picture in Southeast Asia

Human rights advocates painted a downbeat picture of the state of civil liberties across Southeast Asia, telling a congressional panel that abuses persist in nations from the Philippines to Myanmar.

Many countries in the region, analysts told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, are “hiding behind the mask of democracy.”

“Elections have not been a panacea for human rights and for freedom for the people of Southeast Asia,” said Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific advocacy manager for Amnesty International.

Helen Nguyen told the committee of the plight of her husband Michael, an American citizen detained by Vietnamese authorities in July 2018 and sentenced to 12 years in prison last month for “actions” allegedly designed to overthrow the government. HIs familiy says he had traveled to Vietnam for three weeks to visit relatives, and his wife and four daughters only to find out through social media of his arrest.

“I didn’t expect our initial goodbye to be our final one,” said Mrs. Nguyen, a family portrait at her side as she testified..

Witnesses from Amnesty International, Refugees International, and the Heritage Foundation detailed similar abuses and backsliding in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines, from attacks on human rights groups to restricting political dissent and judicial independence.

Rep. Ted Yoho, Florida Republican, suggested trade and other sanctions against offending countries, but Olivia Enos, a policy analyst from the Heritage Foundation, warned that sweeping trade sanctions would hurt ordinary citizens more than the governments responsible.

Bangladesh came in for some rare praise at the hearing for taking in some 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who came across their border in a two-month period in 2017 during a series of brutal clearing campaigns by Myanmar’s military. Dr. Cindy Huang, vice president of strategic outreach at Refugees International, said she saw rapidly established food and shelter distribution centers in Bangladesh on a recent visit.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, Virginia Democrat, criticized President Trump and his administration for what he said was a failure to call out many of the abuses in the countries of the region. Mr. Trump has cultivated better relations with authoritarian leaders in the region such as Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, said cases like Mr. Nguyen’s must not be forgotten.

“We cannot allow Mr. Nguyen to become a number,” he said. “We refuse to let him be just another person caught in the system. We want him back.”