Military-ruled Myanmar says it is not “bound” by findings of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings.
Myanmar’s military government has warned that any pressure from its Southeast Asian neighbors to set a timeline for a peace plan would have “negative repercussions”.
The military government made the statement in response to a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday, which discussed ways to resolve the country’s deepening conflict.
Late Thursday, Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign ministry released a statement blaming armed resistance movements for the violence and saying that pressure to set a timeframe for peace would have more negative than positive effects.
The ministry also said Myanmar was “not bound by the outcome of the meeting” as it was held by nine ASEAN countries without the participation of a representative from Myanmar, completing the bloc’s 10-nation membership.
Myanmar has been rocked in recent weeks by the brutality of the conflict, which has included parcel bombings at Myanmar’s main prison and government airstrikes in northern Kachin State on Sunday that have reportedly killed an estimated 80 people, including many civilians.
No representatives from Myanmar were present at the special meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers as the country’s rulers have been barred from high-level meetings of the bloc since last year’s military coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Thousands have been arrested and violently killed since the coup, and tens of thousands have fled the country.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said ASEAN ministers have expressed concern and disappointment, and in some cases frustration, at the lack of significant progress in implementing a peace plan for Myanmar.
“Instead of making progress, the situation is said to have actually gotten worse and worse,” she said.
“The renewed acts of violence must stop immediately,” said Marsudi. “Without an end to the violence, there will be no conducive conditions for resolving this political crisis.”
“Resolute”
The foreign ministers at the meeting acknowledged that their efforts to bring peace to Myanmar had failed, but reaffirmed their determination to end violence in the country.
“The meeting agreed that ASEAN should not be discouraged but be even more determined to help Myanmar reach a peaceful solution as soon as possible,” Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who chaired the meeting, said in a statement.
ASEAN has attempted to play a peacemaking role by steering a “five-point consensus” plan the group reached last year as a way to secure peace.
The five-point plan called for an immediate cessation of violence, dialogue between affected parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, delivery of humanitarian assistance and a visit by the special envoy to Myanmar to meet all affected parties.
The Myanmar government initially agreed but has made little effort to implement the plan other than seeking humanitarian aid and allowing a visit to ASEAN envoy Prak Sokhonn from Cambodia. But the generals refused to allow him to meet with Suu Kyi, who has been arrested and is facing trial on a range of charges critics say were fabricated to bar her from politics.
Thursday’s meeting comes ahead of the annual ASEAN summit on November 11-13, at which a key focus from leaders will be the crisis in Myanmar, which has threatened the group’s unity.
ASEAN members traditionally avoid criticizing one another, and the violence unleashed by Myanmar’s military is widely viewed as revealing the group’s powerlessness to deal with a geopolitical and humanitarian emergency that could affect them all.
Speaking at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews said a coalition of countries at the UN must join forces and attack Myanmar’s military with sanctions and an arms embargo.
Suggesting international diplomatic efforts similar to those that have sprung up in support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Andrews said “the world is failing the people of Myanmar”.
“There is a leadership vacuum here at the UN and the international community,” he said.