BANGKOK (AP) – Regional diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis intensified on Wednesday, as protests continued in Yangon and other cities calling for the country’s coup plotters to step down and the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi to bring back to power.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited the Thai capital Bangkok and held three-way talks with her Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and Myanmar’s new foreign minister, retired army colonel Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled to Thailand. The meeting was part of its efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis caused by Myanmar’s military coup on February 1.
Marsudi said at a virtual news conference after her return to Indonesia that she had expressed her country’s concerns about the situation in Myanmar.
“We have called on all parties to exercise restraint and not use force … to avoid casualties and bloodshed,” she said, stressing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and trust-building.
Marudi said she conveyed the same principles to a group of elected members of parliament in Myanmar who were banned from taking their seats by the military coup. The legislators come from the Suu Kyi Party’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory last year in the November election, which would give it the second term of five years.
Following the coup, the group, called the Committee called Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the name of the House of Commons combined, announced that they were convening the body in an online session and called on the UN and foreign countries to to regard it as the legitimate government of Myanmar. It has received increasing support from Myanmar’s protest movement, but little or no foreign endorsement. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role could pave the way for negotiations between Myanmar’s ruling junta and its opponents.
Marsudi described her communication with the committee as ‘intensive’.
Indonesia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations seek to promote concessions by the Myanmar army that can ease tensions before there is more violence. The regional grouping, to which Thailand and Myanmar also belong, believes that dialogue with the generals is a more effective method of achieving concessions than more confrontational methods, such as sanctions, which are often advocated by Western countries.
Opposition to the coup in Myanmar continued on Wednesday, with tense strife in the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where police held riot screens and rocket-propelled grenades, blocking the path of some 3,000 teachers and students.
After about two hours, during which protesters played protest songs and listened to speeches condemning the coup, the crowd left.
On Saturday, police and soldiers fatally shot two people in Mandalay while breaking a strike by dock workers. Earlier in the week, they violently dispersed a rally in front of a state bank branch with batons and pendulum shots.
About 150 people from a Christian group also gathered in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, on Wednesday to call for the restoration of democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders held since the coup.
International pressure against the takeover also continues, with more than 130 civil society groups issuing an open letter to the UN Security Council calling for a global arms embargo on Myanmar.
The letter, released on Wednesday, expressed concern about the people of Myanmar being deprived of a democratically elected government and the ongoing violation of human rights by an army with a history of great abuse.
“Any sale or transfer of military equipment to Myanmar may provide the means to further oppress the people of Myanmar in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law,” the letter said.
In addition to a comprehensive arms embargo, he said any Security Council action should ensure that there are ‘robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms’.
There have been arms embargoes over Myanmar in the past during periods of military rule, but not on a global basis. China and Russia, both members of the Security Council, are among the leading arms suppliers to Myanmar, and will almost certainly veto the UN’s effort to impose a coordinated arms embargo.
Indonesia’s efforts to work with other ASEAN members to resolve Myanmar’s crisis have stumbled earlier.
Protesters rallied outside Indonesian embassies in Yangon and Bangkok on Tuesday in response to a news report that Jakarta was proposing to fellow ASEAN members that they provide qualified support for the junta’s plan for a new election next year. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah denied the report.
There was also criticism that Foreign Minister Marsudi was planning to fly to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, this week.
Marsudi admitted on Wednesday that she intended to visit Naypitaw in Bangkok to directly convey Indonesia’s position and the hope of the international community.
“However, the planned visit had to be postponed,” she said. ‘This postponement is intended to put a damper on all parties in Myanmar, with all parties in Myanmar, including the Myanmar army and the Committee representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
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Associated Press author Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.