Borrell: Myanmar situation requires ‘bolder attitudes’
Phnom Penh, Aug 5 (EFE).- European Union Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell said Friday that the crisis in Myanmar following last year’s military coup requires “bolder and stronger attitudes” and called last week’s execution of four activists a “provocation.”
“It is a clear provocation,” Borrel said about the junta’s decision to carry out the first executions in decades in the country days before the ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The summit concludes Friday in Phnom Penh without the participation of Myanmar, which was excluded by the other members.
In statements to EFE, Borrell called the junta’s attitude “deeply disappointing,” adding that “it is to be feared that there will be more executions,” after the four that occurred last week against four dissenters, including former National League for Democracy parliamentarian Phyo Zeya Thaw and activist Ko Jimmy.
The foreign representative said the international community “must continue to put all its economic and political forces under pressure on this junta, which has bloodied the country and is leading it to a situation of absolute political and economic destruction.”
He said “we must continue to apply pressure,” especially the ASEAN countries, as neighbors, and showed his support for this organization’s special envoy “in his attempt to get the junta to sit down to negotiate with opposition political forces.”
“It is the only possible way out of this conflict,” he said.
Borrell’s statements come after ASEAN said Friday its “deep disappointment” at “the limited progress and lack of commitment” of the Myanmar military junta in the application of five points of consensus agreed upon more than a year ago to pacify the country.
The five points, agreed in April 2021 between the junta and other ASEAN members, include ending violence against civilians and starting a dialog between all parties involved in the conflict, including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, incarcerated in a Naypyidaw prison.
More than a year later, progress for its application is almost non-existent and Myanmar remains in a deep political, economic and social crisis, with a brutal repression against dissidents. EFE
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