Friday, December 08, 2006 American holds, deports US activist on way to Cebu
AN AMERICAN human rights lawyer was barred from entering the country ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit here next week.
Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila confirmed that they detained one Brian Campbell shortly after he arrived from Hong Kong late Wednesday. He was immediately booked for a return flight to Hong Kong.
The Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) also confirmed that Campbell is among their 35 foreign delegates who will attend the two-day Conference on Jobs and Justice, which started at the St. Theresa’s College Audio Visual Room yesterday.
The conference is the group’s parallel activity to the Asean Business and Investment Summit.
“I can confirm that a Brian Campbell was detained and was put on the next flight back to Hong Kong,” Ferdinand Sampol, the airport’s immigration head, was quoted as saying in an AFP report.
Campbell is a lawyer of a Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund and was reportedly involved in human rights activities in China.
APRN, which is a network of leading researchers from nongovernment groups and grassroots organizations in the Asia-Pacific, condemned Campbell’s deportation.
Instead of stifling certain individuals from expressing their views, the government should encourage diverse beliefs and listen to different opinions, the group said.
“We are deeply disappointed that the Philippine Government, while promoting the vision of a caring and sharing community in the Asean, would deny a foreign delegate entry to our country just because he was deemed to have views that are different from the agenda in the summit,” Theresa Lauron, ARPN’s secretary-general, said in a press conference.
She said Campbell was able to communicate with them through electronic mail during his short detention at the NAIA and told them that he also saw the names of US-based human rights lawyers Rachel Lederman and Tina Monshipur Foster in the immigration’s blacklist.
The list is said to include the names of some 150 foreign activists who will be banned from entering the country while the Asean summit and associated meetings are in progress.
The AFP report also quoted an unnamed immigration official confirming the existence of the blacklist, but the official did not give details.
Rhea Padilla of the militant group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the local contact group of APRN, said that so far, only Azra Talat Sayeed of Pakistan, Apo Leung and Ramon Bultron of Hong Kong, Jane Kelsey of New Zealand and Peter Murphy of Australia were present in yesterday’s conference.
In an interview with reporters, Kelsey said they are not interfering with Philippine politics and that they only want their voices heard.
The group warned Asean leaders on the plan to promote regional integration because it could lead to further job insecurity among Asian workers.
With regional integration, governments will be pressured to lower labor and wage standards to compete for foreign investment, they said.
“All of us will participate in various ways in having our voices heard. If it includes rallies, then we will participate in rallies,” Kelsey said.
On the other hand, Antonio Tujan, the chairperson of APRN, said integration is not in the service of creating a regional economic bloc like the European Union, but is turning Southeast Asia into an international production base for First World transnational corporations.
The vigilante-style killings of suspected criminals in Cebu City also drew the concern of foreign activists.
“My prime minister will be coming here and we have asked her to meet with those who have been pushing for action (on the killings) and we are hoping that she will do so because only the voice from the outside and with support from the inside that our voice can be heard,” Kelsey said. (AIV/With AFP)
