A human rights group has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to reject a proposal that effectively allows the Myanmar military junta to continue participating in all but a handful of events held by the 10-country bloc.
In a statement on the eve of Friday’s Asean leaders’ summit in Phnom Penh, Fortify Rights said it had obtained a leaked document that sets out recommendations for dealing with Myanmar. The text proposes that with the exception of the leaders’ summit and foreign ministers’ meetings, it should be business as usual where Myanmar’s participation is concerned.
The document also says that the so-called five-point consensus, agreed by Asean leaders including Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing last year, should be retained. The Asean Secretariat, it said, would be tasked “to draft the implementation plan”.
The junta has totally ignored the five-point consensus, and countered with what it calls a five-point road map. Asean reportedly is now looking at ways that the two approaches might be reconciled without compromising Asean’s position.
The junta’s road map has as one of its objectives “free and fair multiparty democratic elections” following the lifting of a state of emergency. Those polls are tentatively scheduled to take place next year.
“The junta’s plans to conduct elections next year are a complete farce and should be treated as such by the entire international community,” said Patrick Phongsathorn, human rights advocacy specialist at Fortify Rights. “Asean leaders must reject any plans to continue to appease the junta, which is committing a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of Myanmar.
“Efforts like this to appease the junta will only prolong its commission of international crimes, the suffering of the Myanmar people, and the negative impacts of this crisis on the wider region. The junta poses a threat to international peace and security and should be treated as such.”
Fortify Rights said it received the leaked internal Asean document from a well-placed source close to negotiations between member states on the Myanmar crisis. The office of the Asean chair, Cambodia, reportedly prepared the undated document following an emergency meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Jakarta on Oct 27.
The document said “Asean is safer and stronger with Myanmar being part of the family” but warned that “failing to solve the political crisis will create an opening for external actors’ interference”.
Min Aung Hlaing will not attend the Asean summit. But while Asean has agreed to exclude representatives of the Myanmar junta from Asean summits and foreign ministers’ meetings, accepting only “non-political” representatives, “other ministerial meetings shall maintain the status quo”.
Asean should suspend the Myanmar junta’s participation in meetings throughout the entire Asean system, scrap the failed five-point consensus, and enact emergency measures to protect the country’s civilian population, Fortify Rights said.
“Such emergency measures should include an agreement on protecting Myanmar refugees, authorising cross-border humanitarian aid, and coordinating with other UN member states to deprive the Myanmar military junta of weapons, dual-use technology, aviation fuel, revenue and political recognition,” it said. “Asean must now publicly engage the National Unity Government — Myanmar’s legitimate representative on the international stage.”
