A day after the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) signed an anti-terror pact with the United States, questions are being raised about the fate of human rights in this region, given the bilateral agreement's stress on security.

For, analysts say, Asean members can use this pact — which aims to make Southeast Asia an inhospitable place for individuals and groups bent on terror — to pursue their own political agendas and go after genuine dissidents, political opponents and the many separatists and rebel groups active in this part of the world.

And they find little comfort in the words of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who asserted in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei where the pact was signed, that ''human rights have to be protected.''

''By signing this pact, the governments in Southeast Asia will find it easy to act against those they deem 'terrorists' like the way they went after dissidents that governments called 'communists' during the Indo-China wars,'' says Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst at Forum-Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human rights lobby.

While Sunai singles out Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia as standing to gain, another regional analyst, Robert Karniol, says that Burma, Laos and Vietnam — three countries with notorious human rights records — will find the new regional ties with Washington a windfall.

''The governments can under the guise of fighting terrorism use the pact to go after rebel groups,'' adds Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defence Weekly . To drive home his point he refers to Burma's internal conflicts with armed secessionist rebels, such as the minority ethnic Karen.

Scale of importance

Burma was renamed Myanmar following the coming to power by a military junta. ''The Burmese can argue that the Karens are a terrorist organisation and ask Washington to stop the funding that the Karen rebels get from the US,'' says Karniol. The months ahead will reveal how far down human rights issues will slip on the scale of importance, says Prapat Thepchatree, director of the Centre for International Policy Studies at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

''It is going to be a problem and governments will abuse this climate.'' The pact that was signed Thursday — known formally as the Asean-US ''Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism'' — marks a turning point in Asean politics, for it is the regional grouping's first bilateral agreement on security.

What has prevailed till now have been individual security agreements between Washington and Asean's various members, which so far have included Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The current agreement with the United States was signed after Asean foreign ministers wound up their annual meeting early in the week in Brunei's capital, and in the process marked 35 years since the group's founding.

''In the past, Asean has shied away from getting involved in security issues,'' says Prapat. ''This week's pact is the first of its kind, making the commitments on both sides more formal and more comprehensive.''

By endorsing this agreement collectively, Asean members — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Burma, Laos and Cambodia — are backing the push by Washington to ''deny sanctuaries'' for those identified as enemies in the region.

Counter-terrorism policies

And in pursuing this objective, Asean and Washington have agreed to enhance the flow of information and intelligence between the two parties regards the movement of funds by alleged terror groups and the development of counter-terrorism policies. Southeast Asia has been on Washington's radar screen due to revelations months ago that a network of Islamic extremists in the region planned to attack US embassies and businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. There have also been reports of some Muslims in the region being linked to the men who carried out the Sept 11 acts of terror.

''It is a very positive move for Asean to take this step as a demonstration of the group's unity to combat terrorism,'' says Panitan Wattanayagorn, an international relations specialist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

''Working on specific measure like financing terrorism is useful.'' Yet Karniol feels the true implications of this agreement will be felt once the US obligations to this pact are known. ''That will reveal what is significantly new in this pact,'' he says.

Such a view stems from the push by Washington since the Sep. 11 acts of terror in the United States to have Southeast Asian countries join the drive to counter groups opposed to U.S. interests. That was clearly the case in Shanghai last October, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, when the forum's customary trade and economic agenda was swept aside for a strong statement condemning 'terrorism'.

And since the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have gone ahead with their own individual efforts to join Washington's bandwagon by cracking down on those linked to international terror networks.

The global agenda

''After September 11, the US agenda has become the global agenda,'' says Prapat. ''The US sees it as the most important issue currently — counter-terrorism — and it wants many countries to cooperate with it in its effort to combat terror.''

For human rights activists like Sunai, the pressure from the United States and a desire by the region's governments to please Washington does not augur well. And such concern — that human rights stands to be traduced as the region marches to Washington's tune — arises from the record over the past few months.

By Dec last year, for instance, human rights monitors in East Asia had raised the alarm after countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand had used the US ''war against terrorism'' to arrest political dissidents.

''What does not help is human rights being undermined in the US,'' says Sunai, referring to the US Congress' passing the Homeland Security Act, which aims to place national security concerns over human rights when going after people Washington suspects of being linked to terrorist networks. ''This is like Christmas for (Malaysian Prime Minister) Mahathir and (Cambodian Prime Minister) Hun Sen,'' says Sunai. — IPS