Malaysia has been included in an United States-compiled list of "serious violators of human rights" comprising 92 countries.

The list - contained in a report titled 'Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The US Record 2002-2003' - was released yesterday in Washington by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Armitage was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the report showed that the US must continue to apply pressure on these countries to encourage improvement in the human rights records.

The report - prepared by the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour - said the Malaysian government which subscribes to an 'Asian Values' ideology has openly acknowledged that it restricts certain political and civil rights to maintain social harmony and political stability.

Politically-motivated

It also indicated that the US faced some difficulty when addressing human rights issues with Malaysia.

"Because the Malaysian government believes that US criticisms of Malaysia's human rights practices are culturally-biased and politically-motivated, pressing controversial human rights questions directly with official counterparts can be counterproductive," it said.

For example, the report noted that despite numerous requests by the US government, Malaysia has not signed a bilateral law enforcement training agreement because it is unable to accept a provision that signatories "seek to uphold human rights".

On the US government's activities in Malaysia over the past year, the report said that "intensive communications" are maintained with political opposition parties, human rights non-government organisations, and civil society representatives.

"US government officials meet periodically with Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president of the opposition (Keadilan) party and wife of imprisoned former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, to demonstrate our continued interest in Anwar's fate."

Immigration laws

Another development highlighted in the report is the controversy that followed the enforcement of new amendments to the immigration law (which allows for the jailing and whipping of illegal immigrants) in August last year.

"In response to international pressure and negative publicity on detention centre conditions, the government pledged to ensure that camp conditions were satisfactory and to investigate allegations of abuses," it said.

Malaysia was embroiled in bilateral quarrels with both Indonesia and the Philippines when hundreds of thousands of returning illegal immigrants led to massive humanitarian problems in their home countries. Allegations of sexual abuse in detention centres also surfaced.

On the state of press freedom, the report also highlighted the January police raid on malaysiakini .

Allies excluded

Meanwhile, other countries in the region which have been included in the report are Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the AP report pointed out that two key US allies - Turkey and Israel - have not been included in the list.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Lorne Craner was reported as saying that the omission was to ensure that the list contains only countries "where there is pervasive torture and where there are acute violations of human rights".

In addition to this report, the US government also compiles an annual human rights survey on a large number of countries worldwide. The 2002 report on Malaysia was released in March this year.

Countries named in the report have often also criticised Washington in turn, saying that the its human rights record is far from perfect as well.