Asean has again failed the people of Myanmar, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
The 46th Asean summit was another wasted opportunity to take meaningful action on Myanmar. Asean leaders once again failed to move beyond platitudes, compounding four years of failure by the regional bloc.
“That Asean continues to default to the redundant five-point consensus on Myanmar shows an alarming lack of urgency, commitment and creativity in tackling the biggest regional crisis in half a century,” Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M said.
On Sunday (25 May), while Asean foreign ministers were meeting in Kuala Lumpur, a Myanmar junta air strike on a wedding in the Kyaukkyi township of Bago region killed at least 10 civilians, including the bride and two children, according to reports.
This attack came less than two weeks after the junta bombed a school in Depayin township, killing 22 children and two teachers and injuring as many as 105 other civilians.
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Despite widespread reporting on these and other junta atrocities, a new statement from Asean leaders bizarrely expressed appreciation for the junta’s non-existent ceasefire and called for its extension and expansion.
Asean leaders also continue to perpetuate a perverse equivalence between the junta’s widespread and systematic atrocities against civilians and the resistance efforts of revolutionary forces.
“Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s relentless attacks on civilians make a sick mockery of Asean’s claims that the junta has implemented a ceasefire or that it has any intention of doing so,” Yanghee Lee of SAC-M said.
“If Asean is serious about stopping the violence, it should immediately request the UN Security Council to step in and impose a countrywide ceasefire in Myanmar with international monitors to enforce the junta’s compliance,” Chris Sidoti of SAC-M added.
Asean leaders claim in their new statement that their “sole objective” is “restoring peace, stability and democracy through a Myanmar-owned and Myanmar-led political solution, for the interest and well-being of the people of Myanmar”.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as Asean chair must therefore champion a new process on Myanmar that prioritises direct engagement with the National Unity Government, ethnic resistance organisations, minority representatives and Myanmar civil society, and that replaces the redundant ‘five-point consensus’. – SAC-M
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
