ASEAN rebukes Myanmar’s junta for lack of progress toward peace

FORUM Staff

Myanmar’s military junta has brutally repressed political opponents and civilian protesters while largely ignoring a plan devised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to work toward peace and democratic reforms.

In a communique issued in early August 2022, foreign ministers from nine members of the 10-nation bloc “expressed our concerns over the prolonged political crisis in the country, including the execution of four opposition activists,” according to The Associated Press (AP). The ASEAN leaders were “deeply disappointed” by the junta’s failure to comply with the five-point consensus and its lack of commitment to stopping the violence, the joint statement said.

Though Myanmar is an ASEAN member, its regime was not invited to participate in the private meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that concluded with the communique. That’s because the military ousted Myanmar’s elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta’s foreign ministry rejected the joint statement, The Irrawaddy newspaper reported.

Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, staged a coup in February 2021, about three months after a national election did not go its way. In April 2021, it vowed to comply with the five-point consensus that called for an immediate end of the junta’s violence against opponents, dialogue among all parties, humanitarian assistance by ASEAN, the appointment of a special envoy and a visit by the envoy to Myanmar.

Little of that happened. Days after agreeing to the consensus the Tatmadaw’s leader, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said fulfilling its provisions would wait until the nation was stable. Violence increased dramatically. (Pictured: Anti-coup demonstrators march in Yangon, Myanmar, in mid-August 2022.)

Since the coup, the junta has killed more than 2,100 people and arrested nearly 15,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent nonprofit organization. In late July 2022, the Tatmadaw executed four political opponents, including two well-known and respected pro-democracy activists.

Nations worldwide denounced the executions. Saifuddin Abdullah, foreign minister of ASEAN member Malaysia, accused the junta of “making a mockery of the five-point consensus,” according to Reuters. The executions “laid bare the junta’s lack of interest in implementing the bloc’s five-point consensus peace plan, into which ASEAN ministers have poured considerable time and diplomatic energy,” according to The Diplomat magazine.

Russia and the People’s Republic of China have economic and military ties with Myanmar’s regime and continue to support it, including by providing weapons.

At the August 2022 summit in Phnom Penh, a lower-level Myanmar official spoke with some of the foreign ministers during side discussions, according to AP. The representative objected to an initial draft of the communique that stated ASEAN condemned and was strongly disappointed by the executions, according to Kyodo News. The draft also said the executions were “highly reprehensible” and had “created a serious setback” to expediting implementation of the five-point consensus, the Japanese news agency reported.

The Myanmar official also called for deleting strident criticism proposed by Malaysia, Singapore and other ASEAN members, according to a diplomat who was involved in the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity, AP reported.

The stronger language was not in the final ASEAN communique.

ASEAN’s 10 nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The bloc’s leaders plan to discuss Myanmar again at their next scheduled meeting in November 2022.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, attended the Phnom Penh meeting. The Myanmar situation “requires bolder, stronger actions,” he told The Irrawaddy. “It is clear that the junta is not listening.”

IMAGE CREDIT: REUTERS