ASEAN envoy meets Myanmar junta leader as talk with pro-democracy groups thin
A special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has met with the junta leader in Myanmar. The two discussed humanitarian assistance and other issues.
Attention is now focused on whether Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, will be able to meet with pro-democracy groups during his visit to Myanmar.
Prak Sokhonn held talks with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday in the capital, Naypyitaw.
Myanmar’s state-run TV station reported that the two men exchanged views on ASEAN’s provision of humanitarian aid and how to handle the armed forces resisting the junta’s rule.
The ASEAN special envoy is scheduled to stay in Myanmar until Sunday. ASEAN countries have been trying to hold talks with pro-democracy groups. The countries want to mediate between the junta and the pro-democracy camp.
However, the junta has been refusing to allow meetings to take place.
Reminiscing the development in the southeast nation, the army general Min Aung Hlaing seized power in Myanmar in February 2021 and declared himself prime minister in August.
Demonstrations spread across Myanmar following the February coup. Security forces responded with a brutal crackdown, killing more than 1,000 people and detaining more than 6,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
He declared a state of emergency and said it would be extended as fighting between the army and militia forces opposed to the military coup continued.
In April 2021, ASEAN urged Gen Min Aung Hlaing to end the violent crackdown in the country and to release political prisoners.
In an unprecedented move the 10-member bloc, which traditionally avoids interfering in its members’ affairs excluded Min Aung Hlaing from the annual summits of regional leaders in 2021.
The group said Myanmar’s military leaders had refused to fulfill promises of dialogue and de-escalation and said its representative had been banned from meeting the deposed and imprisoned civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
