Protesters defend themselves against the troops in Kale, Sagaing region, Myanmar, March 28, 2021. This photo was obtained by REUTERS on March 28, 2021.
South Asian countries will discuss the crisis in Myanmar on Saturday during a summit in Jakarta, the secretariat of the ASEAN bloc said on Tuesday, but the Thai prime minister said several would be represented only by their foreign ministers.
The Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, said he would not attend and that Thailand would be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Don Pramudwinai, who is also Foreign Minister.
“Some other countries will also send their foreign ministers,” Prayuth, a former army chief who led a coup in Thailand in 2014, told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
A Thai government official said on Saturday that Myanmar’s junta minister Min Aung Hlaing would go to Jakarta, although the government in Myanmar did not comment. However, this is considered unlikely – in previous periods of military rule, Myanmar is usually represented by a prime minister or foreign minister at regional meetings.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with ten members tried to find a way to lead fellow member Myanmar out of the bloody unrest in which it descended after the army elected a government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, overthrown. on February 1st.
However, there were differing opinions among ASEAN members on how to respond to the army’s use of lethal force against civilians, and the group’s policies of consensus and non-interference in each other’s affairs limited the ability to act.
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore have tried to increase pressure on the junta. Thailand, the neighbor of Myanmar, said it was “seriously concerned” about the escalating bloodshed, but close military ties and fear of a flood of refugees mean it is unlikely to go any further. read more
Brunei, the current chairman of the bloc, said after a meeting of the group’s foreign ministers in March that ASEAN had expressed concern about the situation in Myanmar and called on “all parties to refrain from further action”. to avert violence ‘.
SMALL PREPAREDNESS
Romeo Jr. Abad Arca, assistant director of the ASEAN secretariat’s community relations division, said Saturday’s summit would take place at Jakarta’s headquarters under strict health and safety protocols due to the pandemic, confirming an earlier opinion .
According to the activist group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 738 people have been killed by the security forces of Myanmar since the coup.
Myanmar’s army has shown little willingness to talk to its neighbors and no sign of wanting to talk to members of the government they expelled, accusing some of them of treason, which is punishable by death.
Pro-democracy politicians, including ousted MPs from Suu Kyi’s party, announced the formation of a National Unity Government (NUG) on Friday.
These include Suu Kyi, who has been in custody since the coup, as well as leaders of the pro-democracy protests and ethnic minorities.
The NUG says it is the legitimate authority and has called for international recognition and an invitation to the ASEAN meeting in place of the junta leader.
Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called on his successor to enter into direct talks with Myanmar’s army to prevent escalating violence, saying Southeast Asian countries should not dismiss the unrest as an internal matter for Myanmar not.
UN special envoy Antonio Guterres over Christian Schraner Burgener has been communicating with the military since the coup, but the junta did not allow her to visit. read more
In its strongest response to date, the European Union said on Monday that nine members of the junta’s state administrative council, formed the day after the coup, had been targeted with travel bans and asset freezes. The Minister of Information, U Chit Naing, has also been approved.
The decision follows similar measures by the United States. Min Aung Hlaing and Myint Swe, who have been acting since the coup, were blacklisted by the EU last month. read more
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.