East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta said Myanmar’s military is not winning the war after he recognized the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) as the official administration.
“The military in Myanmar is not winning this war. They control only 30 percent of the country. Today, it is between the people and the military, and the military will not win this war,” Ramos-Horta told Al Jazeera.
Following Ramos-Horta’s meeting with the NUG’s foreign minister Daw Zin Mar Aung in his capital Dili in July, the junta last month expelled East Timor’s top diplomat from the country for “encouraging the terrorist group to further commit their violations in Myanmar”.
East Timor agreed in principle to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last year and none of the nine other existing members of the bloc has officially recognized the NUG.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said the nation may reconsider joining ASEAN if the bloc does not renew efforts to end the conflict in Myanmar.
Ramos-Horta said the prime minister was “expressing his frustration and ours, of ASEAN countries and the wider international community in regards to the failure of the military in Myanmar to live up to the pledges contained in the five-point consensus”, referring to the bloc’s peace plan for Myanmar that the junta has failed to honor.
“The military in Myanmar seems not to realize the enormous harm they are doing to their own country, their own people and to the credibility of ASEAN,” the president told the Qatar-based broadcaster.
He said East Timor will work with ASEAN to assist the bloc in addressing the problems of Myanmar but from within ASEAN, not outside it because ASEAN leaders were able to bring prosperity and stability to the region in the past.
“I am confident that they will eventually be able to stabilize the situation in Myanmar,” the president said.
