Conflicts & War

ASEAN holds emergency meeting to address Myanmar crisis

Bangkok, Oct 27 (EFE).- The deep crisis in which Myanmar has been plunged since the military coup of February 2021 is the central issue at the emergency meeting held Thursday in Indonesia with the participation of ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

The foreign ministers will talk in the Indonesian capital, where the regional bloc’s headquarters are located, to “review the progress made and the challenges in the implementation” of the five points of consensus reached in April 2021 by the ASEAN leaders and Myanmar military junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

The pact includes the “immediate cessation of violence” against civilians, an inclusive dialogue between all the parties involved, the sending of humanitarian assistance, the appointment of a special ASEAN envoy and his visit to Myanmar.

Of the five points, only the last two have been fully implemented with the appointment of Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as special envoy and his two visits during this year.

Humanitarian aid arrives slowly and with great difficulty due to the armed clashes and the conflict over its distribution between the Army and the opposition to the military regime, which includes the self-styled National Unity Government (NUG) and various ethnic groups.

This emergency meeting, in which the Myanmar representative does not participate, comes after groups opposed to the military regime denounced the killing Sunday of between 50 and 80 people in an army airstrike against a music festival organized by a rebel group in the north of the country.

Several ministers of the association have previously expressed their displeasure at the little progress made by the military regime to reach a negotiated solution to the deep crisis in Myanmar and the imprisonment of the ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sentenced to 20 years in jail

The military coup has unleashed a fierce repression by the army that has claimed the lives of almost 2,400 civilians, according to figures from the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners.

ASEAN was founded in 1967 and currently consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar. EFE

nc/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button