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ASEAN says 'deeply concerned' over escalating Myanmar violence
In a statement issued late Thursday, the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged "all parties for an immediate cessation of violence" in Myanmar, which has been roiled by conflict since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup.
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A truck coming from Myanmar waits to cross over into Thailand at the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Thailand's Mae Sot district on April 12, 2024. (AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)
R
egional bloc ASEAN said it is "deeply concerned" about a recent upsurge in fighting in Myanmar, after fierce clashes over a key trading hub near the Thai border.
In a statement issued late Thursday, the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged "all parties for an immediate cessation of violence" in Myanmar, which has been roiled by conflict since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup.
"We urge all parties for an immediate cessation of violence and to exercise utmost restraint, to uphold international humanitarian law, and to take all the necessary measures to defuse tensions and to ensure the protection and safety of all civilians," they said in a statement from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Myanmar resistance fighters on Monday burned the flag used by the military government and raised their own banner at a newly captured army base, as a senior rebel commander vowed they would hold the strategic area near the Thai border.
The celebrations by fighters linked to the armed ethnic Karen National Union (KNU) came less than a week after the capture of Myawaddy, a key trading town on Thailand's western border.
Myawaddy's fall marked another battlefield loss for the powerful military regime that seized control in 2021 from an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains in detention.
Simmering anger against the junta has turned into a nationwide armed resistance movement that is now increasingly operating in coordination with established ethnic rebel groups to challenge the military across large parts of Myanmar.
Since last October, the army has lost control of key areas near its borders with both India and China to a loose coalition of allied resistance forces. The loss of Myawaddy at the Thai border could further dent trade revenue for the junta.
