Southeast Asian leaders mentioned they’d agreed on a plan with Myanmar’s junta chief on Saturday to finish the disaster within the violence-hit nation, together with halting the killing of civilian protesters and accepting humanitarian help.
“It’s past our expectation,” Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters after the leaders’ meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
ASEAN leaders wanted a commitment from Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to restrain his security forces, who monitors say have killed 745 people since a mass civil disobedience movement emerged to challenge his Feb. 1 coup against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. They had also wanted the release of political prisoners.
“It’s good that he did not reject what was put forward by me and many other colleagues,” Muhyiddin mentioned of the overall, who was on the assembly with the opposite leaders.
According to a press release from Brunei, the chair of the group, a consensus was reached on 5 factors – ending violence, a constructive dialogue amongst all events, a particular ASEAN envoy to facilitate the dialogue, acceptance of support and a go to by the envoy to Myanmar.
“He mentioned he heard us, he would take the factors in, which he thought of useful,” said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of the junta chief, according to Channel NewsAsia television. “He was not opposed to ASEAN playing a constructive role, or an ASEAN delegation visit, or humanitarian assistance.”
But Lee added the method had a protracted option to go, “as a result of there’s one factor to say you’ll stop violence and launch political prisoners; it’s one other factor to get it executed.”
There was no immediate comment from Min Aung Hlaing.
The ASEAN gathering was the first coordinated international effort to ease the crisis in Myanmar, an impoverished country that neighbours China, India and Thailand. Myanmar is part of the 10-nation ASEAN.
The bloc has a policy of consensus decision-making and non-interference in the affairs of its members.
It was unusual for the leader of a military government in Myanmar to attend an ASEAN summit – usually the country has been represented by a lower-ranked officer or a civilian.
The leaders of Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Brunei were at the meeting, along with the foreign ministers of Laos, Thailand and the Philippines.
While ASEAN’s policy of non-interference makes it difficult to tackle contentious issues, the body is seen by the United Nations, China and the United States as best placed to deal with the junta directly.
“We in the [@UN] Security Council eagerly await the outcome of the @ASEAN meeting on Burma, which deserves serious and immediate attention,” mentioned U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Twitter.
Still, some analysts warned of the risks of giving legitimacy to the junta by inviting its chief to the summit.
“Formal illustration of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar navy) on the ASEAN summit, with out giving any concessions in return, together with at the start a dedication to cease the bloodshed, will not be constructive,” Huong Le Thu, of the Australian Strategic Policy Initiative, wrote in an analysis of the ASEAN meeting.
(Additional reporting by Nilufar Rizki, Fanny Potkin, Agustinus Beo Da Costa, A. Ananthalakshmi, Aradhana Aravindan and Panu Wongcha-um; Writing by Martin Petty and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Michael Perry and Ros Russell)
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