Indonesia says no progress on ASEAN consensus to resolve Myanmar crisis
Jakarta, Aug 2 (EFE).- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi Monday said ASEAN made no significant progress in resolving the political crisis in Myanmar six months after the military toppled a civilian government power in the Southeast Asian country.
“There has been no significant progress in implementing the five points of consensus,” agreed in the Apr.24 meeting between the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on the mounting crisis in Myanmar.
The Indonesian foreign minister urged her counterparts from the regional bloc to move fast in implementing the five-point consensus that endorsed the immediate cessation of violence and the appointment of a special ASEAN envoy to help facilitate dialog among all parties.
The ASEAN leaders and Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing agreed on the consensus in Jakarta.
However, three months after the meeting, ASEAN has not appointed its special envoy for the country that has been on edge since the Feb.1 military coup.
“The special envoy must be able to work immediately with a clear mandate from ASEAN. The special envoy must also be guaranteed full access to meetings with various parties” and allowed to move in Myanmar, Marsudi said.
The Myanmar coup leader said Sunday that Myanmar was ready to work with ASEAN within its framework that includes talks with a special envoy from the bloc.
The military chief said it during a televised speech after he proclaimed himself an interim prime minister of the troubled country.
Myanmar security forces continue to suppress dissent a brute military force.
They have allegedly killed at least 940 people since the coup, figures from the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners showed.
The monitor says the security forces have arrested nearly 7,000 people since the coup.
These include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the toppled democratic government.
The Myanmar political crisis is on top of the agenda of the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers that began on Monday.
The meeting will continue until Friday with leaders of China, the United States, Russia, and the European Union.
The military has cited alleged irregularities in the November 2020 elections, rejected by international observers of the polls, as the justification for the coup that ended the nascent democracy in Myanmar.
The military claimed that a probe found 11.3 million fraud cases in the elections swept by the National League for Democracy (NLD) of Suu Kyi. EFE
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