By THE IRRAWADDY
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is on a four-nation Asian tour, arrived in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country on Wednesday, on a mission to restore the image of the United States in the Islamic world.
During Clinton's first stop in Japan, she told students at Tokyo University that the US was under new management.
"I think you will see from President Obama and those of us in his administration a concerted effort to present a different position to the Islamic world without in any way stopping our efforts to prevent terrorism," Clinton said.
In his inauguration address on January 20, Barack Obama, the US president, vowed to seek a "new way forward" with Muslim-majority countries, "based on mutual interest and respect." Obama spent part of his early childhood in Indonesia.
During her two-day schedule in Indonesia, Clinton will meet with senior government officials, including President Susilo Yudhoyono.
According to the reports from Jakarta, Clinton will visit the Southeast Asian Nations secretariat and is likely to signal US intent to sign the regional bloc's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. She will also pledge to attend the group's annual foreign ministers meeting in Thailand this year.
Coinciding with Clinton's visit, the latest human rights issue in the region involves the Muslim Rohingya boat people from the Bangladesh-Burma border region.
"The Asean summit next week has the theme of 'Asean charter for Asean people,'" said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network (Altsean). "The biggest challenge in Asean is the fact that Asean governments did not treat human beings in the region as people."
Earlier this year, news reports and images surfaced of Thai authorities reportedly dragging some 1,000 Rohingyas out to sea without adequate water, food or engines on their boats.
Many of those Rohingyas are believed to have died at sea, but some 200 drifted on to Indonesian shores. With no particular country of destination and determined not to return home, the displaced Rohingya are stateless and can only hope for asylum in order to rebuild their lives.
Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the plight of the Rohingya boat people will be discussed at the Asean summit of the 10-nation group next week.
"But we have to discuss this either during the bilateral meetings or in the informal meetings," he said.
Washington's policy on Burma, an Asean member, has been built around political and economic sanctions because of its poor human rights record.
During a meeting with students of Japan's Tokyo University on Tuesday, Clinton said Obama administration "is looking at steps that might influence the current Burmese government, and we're also looking for ways that we could more effectively help the Burmese people."
In a response to a student from Burma who asked whether there was an alternative to sanctions, she said, "We want to see a time when citizens of Burma and the Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi can live freely in their own country."
Clinton will depart Indonesia on Thursday for South Korea and China.
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