As Myanmar slips further into its post-coup crisis, the junta is desperately turning an informal discussion on Myanmar hosted by Thailand into an opportunity for propaganda by blatantly lying about every issue it has been struggling with.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai last week invited foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the foreign minister of Myanmar’s junta, to prepare the way to “fully reengage Myanmar at the leaders’ level”.
The Myanmar regime’s top leaders and its foreign minister have been excluded from high-level meetings of ASEAN since late 2021, following the junta’s failure to honor the bloc’s plan to restore peace in the country, which has been in turmoil since the military staged a coup earlier that year.
Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia shunned the talks held in the resort of Pattaya from June 18-19. Representatives from other ASEAN members including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar neighbors China and India joined the talks.
The current ASEAN chair, Indonesia, criticized the Thai government for organizing the talks, which were also condemned by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government and hundreds of the country’s civil society organizations.
Junta foreign minister Than Swe made full use of his first opportunity to speak at the regional meeting, saying correct information about Myanmar had been blocked, and only false and lopsided news about the country was spread by biased media, according to a statement by the regime’s foreign ministry.
Than Swe, who served as Myanmar Ambassador to the United States under U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, said at the talks that Myanmar military is focusing its efforts on three of ASEAN’s five-point consensus: ending violence in the country, starting dialogue among all parties, and delivering humanitarian assistance to Myanmar people.
The graduate of Defense Services Academy 16th intake also blamed the country’s ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) for escalating the fighting.
“For more than 33 years, successive governments have patiently engaged in dialogue instead of fighting to build permanent peace in Myanmar, but EAOs are intentionally delaying it because they can’t relinquish [their] lucrative drug business,” he said at the talks.
He also took an opportunity to provide an alternative view of his regime’s indiscriminate air attacks targeting civilians, saying officers of Myanmar’s military have been trained to follow rules of engagement outlined in the Vienna Convention, and not to use disproportionate force.
Then, he accused the shadow National Unity Government and its armed wing People’s Defense Force of killing “over 5,800 unarmed civilians”. He was silent, however, about the junta’s killing of at least 3,692 people, mainly for their anti-regime activism, documented by the watchdog Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
During the meeting in Pattaya, Than Swe didn’t utter a word about the fact that—more than two years since the coup—his regime still cannot control the country and is losing control of more land to PDFs.
He also neglected to mention that junta troops have suffered heavy casualties since the early days of the fighting.
Instead, he boasted: The “Tatmadaw [Myanmar military], being systematically formed, experienced and capable, can easily crush ordinary armed groups,” referring to the resistance forces.
Then Than Swe bored the meeting participants by discussing the regime’s unscheduled election plans, repeating the claim of his superior, Min Aung Hlaing, that power would be handed to the poll’s winning party.
A junta statement on the meeting further claimed that those who attended did not want to interfere in Myanmar’s domestic politics, and hoped to promote ties with the country.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on situation of human rights in Myanmar, called the informal talks dangerous, saying they could cause division among ASEAN members and help legitimize Myanmar’s junta.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said direct talks were necessary to protect his country, explaining that Thailand has suffered more than others in the region due to its lengthy land border with Myanmar.
Despite Bangkok’s defense of the meeting, questions have been raised about why Thailand made the rushed decision to hold talks when a new government is expected to take over in August after progressive and populist parties defeated their military-backed rivals in the country’s May 14 election.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a senior fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, wrote in the Bangkok Post that the outgoing government’s decision to hold the meeting raises questions about possible vested interests involved in the apparent acceptance of Myanmar’s military regime.
The meeting damaged Thailand’s international standing, undermined ASEAN’s central regional role and sabotaged Indonesia’s position as the current ASEAN chair, he said, adding:
“Thailand’s questionable policy has made enemies with the vast majority of Myanmar’s population, who have risen up against the SAC (the regime), underpinned by a raging civil war in which the military is not winning and is unable to consolidate its grip on power.”
Even Cambodian Foreign Minister Minister Prak Sokhonn ignored the personal invitation from his Thai counterpart, dispatching one of the most junior of his 14 secretaries of state, Kung Phoak, to the talks.
Speaking after the talks in Pattaya, Cambodia’s authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen—who has never been accused of having an affection for democracy—was dismissive of Myanmar.
“What are the latest achievements of Myanmar other than the destruction of human lives and property?” he asked.
