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. At least 130 political prisoners have died in custody, including 50 at Obo Prison during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck in March, the group said.
“These deaths are the tragic consequence of detention conditions that defy all standards of humanity and legality,” APHR stated, citing accounts of torture, solitary confinement, sexual abuse, and overcrowded, unsanitary conditions.
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.
“Recognition without enforcement is meaningless,” Barends added. “We need a principled ASEAN, one that not only listens, but acts.”
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.
Fears are mounting for Myanmar’s jailed aging ex-leaders, as observers point to long jail sentences and denial of adequate medical treatment as part of a systematic effort by the regime to ensure that democracy leaders do not leave prison alive.
Jailed leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi turned 80 on June 19, marking her fifth consecutive birthday and over 1,600 days in junta detention.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activist Ko Wai Moe Naing – sentenced to 74 years for protesting the 2021 coup – was reportedly beaten following his recent transfer from Monywa Prison to Mandalay’s Obo Prison.
He lost consciousness from blood loss after a prison officer struck his head with an iron rod upon arrival, Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM) reported on Tuesday. He was denied hospital treatment and instead shackled and placed in solitary confinement.
“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.”
