ASEAN excludes Myanmar chief of board from upcoming regional summit

Myanmar’s junta chief will be excluded from the upcoming ASEAN summit, the group said on Saturday, a rare rebuke as concerns mount about the military government’s commitment to defusing a bloody crisis.

The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed at an emergency meeting on Friday night that a “non-political representative” of Myanmar would be invited to the October 26-28 summit, the current president said. ASEAN Brunei in a statement.

The decision effectively excluded the leader of the board, Min Aung Hlaing.

Myanmar’s junta criticized the decision on Saturday night, accusing ASEAN of violating the bloc’s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of its member states.

“We can also see interference from other (non-ASEAN) countries,” the board’s spokesman, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, told the Burmese section of the BBC.

It drew on talks between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and ASEAN Special Envoy Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof before the meeting and also highlighted pressure from the EU.

This is a real breakthrough for ASEAN and for the anti-junta forces. It restores the credibility of ASEAN diplomacy and deprives the SAC of the opportunity to present itself as a legitimate government, representations it had been using to discourage further resistance within Myanmar. https://t.co/vlSom2luGh

– Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) October 16, 2021

The bloc, widely criticized as a toothless organization, took a firm stand after the junta rejected requests for a special envoy to meet with “all concerned” in Myanmar, a phrase believed to include the ousted civilian leader. Aung San Suu Kyi.

The statement noted “insufficient progress” in implementing a five-point plan agreed by ASEAN leaders in April to end unrest following a coup in February.

He also said that the situation in Myanmar “is having an impact on regional security, as well as the unity, credibility and centrality of ASEAN.”

Richard Horsey, an adviser to the Crisis Group in Myanmar, predicted that the “non-political” representative would be someone below the level of minister or vice minister.

Singapore’s Foreign Ministry described the move as a “difficult but necessary decision to maintain ASEAN’s credibility.”

Mustafa Izzuddin, a global affairs analyst at consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore, called the exclusion “an interim political measure for ASEAN to mitigate international criticism.”

He sent a “political signal” to the board “that ASEAN is not someone to be pressured,” added Izzuddin.

And Myanmar independent analyst David Mathieson said “in ASEAN terms, this is a real slap in the face.”

Thorn in the side of ASEAN

Myanmar, ruled primarily by the military since the 1962 coup, has been a thorn in the side of ASEAN since it joined in 1997.

Elections in 2015 overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party marked the beginning of civilian rule, but this was interrupted by the coup.

ASEAN has been under international pressure to address the unrest that erupted after the coup, including mass protests; new clashes between the army and the ethnic rebel armies in the border regions; and an economy in free fall.

The bloc has expressed disappointment at the lack of cooperation from the junta, which continues to brutally repress dissent. More than 1,000 civilians have died, according to a local watchdog group.

Part of the consensus was to allow a long-delayed visit by a special envoy, Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Yusof.

ASEAN has insisted that it meet with all interested parties, but the board rejected any proposed meeting with the indicted persons, including Suu Kyi, who faces various charges.

A senior US administration official, commenting on media reports of the exclusion before the official statement was released, said that “it seems perfectly appropriate and indeed fully justified … for ASEAN to downgrade the share of Burma “, using the former name of Myanmar.

Member countries had already expressed their disappointment with the path chosen by the board.

“If there is no real progress, then Malaysia’s position will remain: that we do not want the general to attend the summit. There is no commitment on this,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Friday before the meeting.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a tweet after the meeting that her country had proposed that Myanmar “should not be politically represented” at the summit until it restores “its democracy through an inclusive process. “.

Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister of a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers called the NUG, praised the exclusion as “a very strong move” and expressed hope that ASEAN will recognize the NUG as the legitimate government of Myanmar. .

Political activist Minn Khant Kyaw Linn, 23, who organized a protest in Mandalay where the ASEAN flag was burned in June, said it was time for the bloc to allow NUG representatives to attend its meetings.

The board, officially known as the State Administration Council, has promised to hold elections and lift the state of emergency by August 2023.

(AFP)