Myanmar’s junta minister Min Aung Hlaing is set to attend a Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia on April 24, a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday for his first known foreign trip since he held a coup on February 1st.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since Min Aung Hlaing ousted an elected government led by Democratic champion Aung San Suu Kyi, with security forces killing at least 728 people, according to an activist group, in an attempt to wipe out protests .
In the latest violence, security forces shot dead two people in the ruby mining town of Mogok, one of several towns in which crowds marched on Saturday to protest, a resident told Reuters.
Myanmar’s neighbors tried to encourage talks between the rival parties to resolve the crisis, but the military showed little willingness to enter into talks with them or talk to the ousted government.
Several leaders of the ten-member ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, have confirmed their attendance at the meeting in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, including Min Aung Hlaing, Thai spokeswoman Tanee Sangrat said.
A spokesman for the Myanmar junta did not respond to calls for comment.
Myanmar’s ousted government is likely to challenge the junta chief’s participation in the meeting.
Pro-Democratic politicians, including ousted MPs, on Friday announced the formation of a National Unity Government (NUG), including Suu Kyi and leaders of the protest against the coup and ethnic minorities.
The NUG says this is the legal political authority. It called for international recognition and for ASEAN to reject Min Aung Hlaing’s participation in the meeting and instead invite it.
A NUG representative was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier Saturday, the junta released 23,184 inmates from across the country under a New Year’s amnesty, a spokesman for the Department of Prisons said, although there were few or no democracy activists arrested since the coup. .
Saturday is the first day of the traditional New Year in Myanmar and the last day of a five-day holiday usually celebrated with visits to Buddhist temples and turbulent water throwing and partying in the streets.
Pro-democracy activists this year called for the festivities to be canceled and for people to focus on a campaign to restore democracy.
Suu Kyi is among 3,141 people arrested in connection with the coup, according to a version of the activist group of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
“These prisoners are mostly from before February 1, but there are also some who were locked up later,” prison spokeswoman Kyaw Tun Oo told Reuters by telephone.
Asked if any of the freedmen were possibly detained in connection with the protests against military rule, he said he did not have details about the amnesty.
ROUGH PATH
While the army freed the thousands of prisoners, it also searched 832 people on warrants in connection with the protests, the AAPP said.
Among them are 200 people, including several internet celebrities, actors and singers who have spoken out against the coup, on charges of encouraging disagreements in the military, which could carry a three-year prison sentence.
Two of them, the couple of film director Christina Kyi and actor Zenn Kyi, were detained at the airport in the capital Yangon on Saturday when they tried to leave on a flight to Bangkok, reports the Irrawaddy news website.
The NUG’s vice-president, Duwa Lashi La, an ethnic Kachin lawyer, said in a New Year’s message that the road to replacing military rule with democracy would be difficult.
“We promise to continue working with all ethnic peoples to overthrow the military dictatorship and establish a new federal democracy,” he said.
The coup also caused clashes between the military and rebel groups of ethnic minorities in the north and east.
On Saturday, Kachin Independence Army fighters attacked an air base in the north with rockets, one of which hit a nearby townhouse and injured one person, the Mizzima news agency reported.
Suu Kyi is facing various charges, including the violation of an official secret act that could have her sentenced to 14 years in prison. Her lawyers dismiss the charges.
The military has defended its coup with allegations of fraud in an November election won by Suu Kyi’s party, although the election commission rejected the objections.
The junta said it would hold a new election within two years and hand over power to the winner.
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