William Wynne – Will ASEAN think about the actual needs of people of Myanmar?

(MoeMaKa) 28 August, 2023

People of Myanmar are seriously disappointed with ASEAN’s approaches towards one of its members, Burma or Myanmar. Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup ousted the elected legislative government in February 2021, suppressed through a blood-stained crackdown on dissent.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers on 13 July condemned violence in Myanmar again and repeated support for a peace plan ignored by its military ruled Myanmar, as the divided association struggled to find unity over the prolonged crisis. However, the situation seems bad to go downhill and far away from an acceptable way out.

On 12 July, ASEAN chair Indonesia urged a political solution to the crisis at two-day foreign minister talks. Nevertheless, over two years after the coup, the divided 10-member association’s peace efforts remain unproductive, as the illegitimate junta takes no notice of international criticism and declines to engage with its opponents.

On 21 August, Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi made the statement at a public lecture entitled “The Role of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Implementation of Indonesia’s Soft Power Diplomacy” in Padang, West Sumatra, which she joined via video recording. As the chair of ASEAN in 2023, Indonesia will make every effort to find the best solution for peace, such as inclusive dialogue carried out by stakeholders in Myanmar, according to ANTARA News.

Indonesian FM Marsudi said that the peace mission would depend heavily on the attitude of stakeholders in Myanmar, especially the military junta. ASEAN, which has a principle of non-interference in members’ affairs, has long faced criticism for not taking a powerful stance on Myanmar. It must take notice of issuing statements or practicing lip services wouldn’t be enough while tackling Myanmar deadlock.

Moreover, the majority people of Myanmar have made it clear that they decide to take the military out of power and will not accept new junta-run elections. As a result, people can easily predict that a large majority of voters would boycott the elections run by the junta. People wouldn’t be likely to cast their ballots under threat. Hopefully, junta-run voting show might be faced with a hefty violence on election day, due to its oppositions being against the polls seriously.

It seems junta-run elections would do nothing to address the root-cause of the current political crisis and would likely be strengthening tension and instability throughout the country. Thus, ASEAN must give a clear message to the illegal junta that it will not recognize the military-proposed sham election next year.

However, many critics are distrustful, saying ASEAN has been ignoring the war-crimes of the military junta and just grabbing the Five-Point Consensus which is a time-buying process to favor brutish junta executing its own people and burning down the villages.  

ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus announced in April 2021 states that, “there shall be immediate termination of violence in Myanmar and all parties shall exercise utmost restraint”, whilst the celebrated UN Security Council resolution on Myanmar in December 2022 demanded “an immediate end to all forms of violence throughout the country and urges restraint and de-escalation of tensions.”

In fact, ASEAN intends to promote regional peace and stability through respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the U.N. Charter. Yet it shuts its eyes while extrajudicial killings, violence against women and children, burning down villages throughout the country and launching airstrikes on public areas take place daily in Myanmar.

Until now there has been a reign of terror instead of law and order under the bloodthirsty military junta. As a result, ASEAN’s flaw to take a righteous position on Myanmar junta has become its Achilles’ heel.  It has been obviously watching bloodstained extrajudicial killings and atrocious war-crimes in Myanmar. The organization is reluctant to take a bold step yet. Due to ASEAN’s non-intervention clause, the junta has opportunities to abuse human rights brazenly under the umbrella of ASEAN.

The U.N. Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) stated on 7th August that pro-regime forces are increasingly committing “frequent and brazen war crimes” in Burma. This includes haphazard airstrikes, arson attacks, and summary executions of combatants and civilians, as said by the DVB News.

“Our evidence points to a dramatic increase in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country, with widespread and systematic attacks against civilians, and we are building case files that can be used by courts to hold individual perpetrators responsible,” said Nicholas Koumjian, the head of IIMM.

The chief of the United Nations humanitarian relief agency has urged Myanmar’s junta to allow greater access to 1.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance pointing out critical situation consequences of the 2021-coup related conflicts.

Returning from a three-day visit that concerned a meeting with the junta chief, Martin Griffiths said a funding shortage needed humanitarian assistance for one-third of the population stuck in the war-torn zones. The military’s bloody crackdown on dissent led to the formation of an armed resistance movement that has battled security forces around the country, with clashes displacing more than a million people, according to Reuters.

“Successive crises in Myanmar have left one third of the population in need of humanitarian aid,” Griffiths said in a statement.

The U.N. agency said fighting and natural disasters since the 2021 coup had led to a five-fold increase in the number of displaced people, from 380,000 to 1.9 million.

ASEAN is presumably pledged to step up economic development, social progress, communication and cultural development in the South-East Asia region, to improve the institution for a prosperous and integrated community of Southeast Asian nations. Even though its noble mission couldn’t advance due to one of its member’s foolish acts against democratic system. Myanmar, a member of ASEAN, has been currently under illegal military command since February 2021 that pays no attention to the principles of the regional grouping. How can the association ignore the recalcitrance of its renegade member Myanmar?

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), nearly 4,000 people have been killed in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup. Ten civilians were killed on June 27 in an airstrike on Nyaung Kone village, located in Pale Township of Sagaing Region. “It was heartbreaking for everyone,” said an unnamed Nyaung Kone resident. Two injured children are still in hospital. Nyaung Kone villagers said that they flee their homes whenever they are aware of the sound of airplanes in the sky. 

People are convinced that the ruthless junta’s chief may not stop its vicious oppression against innocent people who are also suffering from the worsening socio-economic situation.  

In conclusion, ASEAN leaders should not be taken in by the cunning dictatorial chief of the Myanmar junta. The junta’s generals are well-bred gentlemen in front of the ASEAN’s counterparts whereas they are the inhumane tyrants to their own people, especially to the various ethnic groups in Myanmar.