Myanmar’s junta-controlled foreign ministry has condemned the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for not mentioning its alleged efforts to restore democracy by “peaceful means” in a statement on the bloc’s recent meeting.
ASEAN foreign ministers gathered in Jakarta last week for their 56th meeting. High on the agenda was Myanmar’s post-coup crisis and how to deal with the junta to halt the violence. The junta’s foreign minister was not invited as the regime leadership has been excluded from high-level ASEAN meetings since late 2021 for failing to honor the bloc’s peace plan, known as the Five-point Consensus (5PC).
In the Joint Communiqué of the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the bloc states that the 5PC remained its main reference to address the political crisis in Myanmar.
“We strongly condemned the continued acts of violence, including air strikes, artillery shelling, and destruction of public facilities and urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately halt indiscriminate violence…” it added, referring to atrocities mostly committed by the regime.
The regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded on Friday, saying Myanmar categorically rejected the statement as it only included “unfair and one-sided facts without reflecting the efforts of the member state to restore a genuine democratic system by peaceful means.”
The ministry’s statement said Myanmar could not accept “country-specific paragraphs” in any ASEAN statement as this contradicts the bloc’s principle of non-interference in members’ internal affairs.
The junta ministry also lamented that facts it provided for the statement were also ignored despite it having “faithfully engaged” in the joint communiqué’s drafting process as “a responsible member state.”
“It was found that Myanmar’s inputs, concerns and voice are not reflected in the final Joint Communiqué,” it said.
Observers wondered what “peaceful means” the military regime was referring to in its alleged attempts to restore democracy. In reality, the junta is conducting air raids, artillery strikes, arbitrary arrests, and killings in response to a nationwide uprising against the military’s 2021 coup to topple a democratically elected government. As of Friday, when the foreign ministry claimed peaceful efforts to restore democracy, it had killed 3,793 people – mostly for their anti-regime activism.
Despite its criticism of ASEAN, Myanmar under the military junta has been a source of disgrace for the regional bloc in which it is a member. Apart from ignoring the regional grouping’s peace plan, it also caused serious division among member states.
Last month, it used its close ally Thailand to host talks among several ASEAN members and other Asian countries to push the bloc to fully reengage with the junta. The meeting was boycotted by current ASEAN chair Indonesia and members Singapore and Malaysia, damaging the bloc’s unity.
Shortly before the foreign ministers’ meeting, the junta allowed outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai to meet with detained Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, becoming the first outsider to visit her since she was arrested following the 2021 coup. The meeting happened without ASEAN’s knowledge and sparked controversy since the Thai foreign minister had no mandate for the visit and is not an ASEAN special envoy for Myanmar.
