Mizzima-Aug 13
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said on 12 August that Myanmar’s rejection of a new ASEAN special envoy is a deliberate attempt to close off the one channel of regional accountability the junta has never complied with, describing it as the latest step in a five-week pattern of resistance to the bloc’s peace plan. Charles Santiago, APHR co-chairperson and a former Malaysian MP, said the sequence follows a pattern, adding that “each step is designed to normalize the junta,” while Aung San Suu Kyi and, by his count, more than 22,000 other political prisoners remain jailed. APHR chairperson Mercy Chriesty Barends said a military government responsible for what she called the deterioration of human rights “does not represent the aspirations of the people of Myanmar.” The statement traces a sequence of events beginning on 9 July, when Myanmar’s pro-military parliament passed a motion rejecting the Five-Point Consensus, which ASEAN adopted in April 2021 following the coup, saying it did not align with the country’s current political developments. The junta’s foreign ministry said it was “obliged to respect” the motion. Twelve days later, on 21 July, ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Manila reaffirmed the Five-Point Consensus as their “main reference” for addressing Myanmar’s crisis and agreed to develop formal benchmarks to measure compliance, along with a longer-term special envoy to replace the current annual rotation. Both proposals are due before ASEAN leaders at the November summit. On 31 July, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who declared himself “president,” told parliament that ASEAN had discriminated against Myanmar and that the Five-Point Consensus had been adopted in 2021 without the agreement of all member states. Days later, on 6-7 August, Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Bangkok his first official visit to Thailand since the coup and met Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. The joint statement issued after the visit made no mention of the Five-Point Consensus, even as it reiterated Thailand’s support for Myanmar’s participation in ASEAN. The visit came a day after the Philippines, ASEAN’s current chair, issued a statement on 7 August welcoming an ICRC visit to detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi as “a positive step,” while reiterating its call for her “complete and unconditional release” and renewing a request for special envoy Ma. Theresa Lazaro to be granted access to meet her. Read more at:
