Irrawaddy-July 2
Lawmakers from across Southeast Asia have called on regional leaders to prioritize the immediate release of Myanmar’s political prisoners during next week’s ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM). ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a network of over 175 current and former elected legislators in the region, warned that continued silence only deepens the suffering of thousands unjustly imprisoned under Myanmar’s brutal military regime, as the AMM prepares to convene in Kuala Lumpur from July 8-9.
“ASEAN can no longer postpone justice,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, Chair of APHR and an Indonesian MP. “The continued detention of political prisoners is a stain on our regional conscience. Their release must be central to ASEAN’s engagement with Myanmar moving forward.” The junta has imprisoned at least 29,338 opponents since the 2021 coup, including over 5,000 women and at least 610 children, the APHR said in a statement issued Wednesday. Reports of torture, denial of medical care, and cruel, degrading treatment are widespread.
Despite regional promises of action, the issue of political prisoners remains unresolved. APHR noted that the 2021 ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting attended by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing called for their release, but four years later, that demand remains unmet. The military regime has ignored ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus (5PC) for peace, critics say, allowing the junta to continue its brutal crackdown with impunity. The group is calling on ASEAN to prioritize the release of all political prisoners – including detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, and President U Win Myint, 73 – establish a clear timeframe for progress, support independent prison monitoring, and take concrete steps to end impunity for the junta’s crimes. “Every day ASEAN hesitates, more lives are lost,” warned Rangsiman Rome, a Thai MP and APHR board member. “The moral weight of inaction is too great. ASEAN must choose now: complicity or conscience.” Read more at:
