The incident also indicates ASEAN will not be able to achieve meaningful progress anytime soon in convincing the Myanmar military to end its atrocities against its own people. Initially, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi had expressed her belief that ASEAN, under Indonesia’s chairmanship, could step up pressure on the junta to end the crisis that has plagued Myanmar since the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has given no sign of respecting ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus of peace restoration, which he accepted during an emergency summit with the bloc’s leaders in Jakarta in April 2021. Myanmar’s military has been known for its defiance against pressure from outside.

The weekend incident came just a few days before ASEAN leaders regrouped for the bloc’s biannual summit, this year in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara. ASEAN diplomats were on board when the convoy was ambushed and the violence has put ASEAN’s peace mission in jeopardy.

The Myanmar junta quickly blamed “terrorists” for the assault, but the junta cannot evade responsibility because the humanitarian trip could have only happened with its approval.

Local news outlets reported on Monday that the aid convoy came under fire as it was heading for a meeting with the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA), an ethnic armed organization, for talks on the delivery of humanitarian assistance to internally displaced civilians.

The delegation included Singaporean and Indonesian embassy officials, as well as junta officials and representatives from the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center).

The AHA Center is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation and coordination in ASEAN, as well as with other groups, such as the United Nations, for emergency responses.

No one was wounded in the attack, and no party has claimed responsibility for it either. For outsiders, however, it is hard to believe that the Myanmar military could have been so negligent as to fail to prevent the attack.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called it a “shootout” and said it would not stop ASEAN’s efforts to restore peace in Myanmar.

"Stop using force. Stop violence because it's the people who will be victims. This condition will not make anybody win," said Jokowi, who is serving as ASEAN chairman this year.

Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have been ardent supporters of President Jokowi’s initiatives on Myanmar. But is also obvious that Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam deem the violence and instability in Myanmar an internal matter.

As ASEAN leaders are now gathering in Labuan Bajo for the summit, the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the military junta and the rising armed resistance against them will loom large over the meeting, especially after the weekend shooting. Min Aung Hlaing and his representatives are barred from attending the summit, as ASEAN leaders have not seen good faith efforts from the junta to end to end the atrocities and begin peace talks.

The Five-Point Consensus demands the immediate cessation of violence, a resumption of peaceful dialogue with all parties to the conflict, the provision of access for ASEAN humanitarian aid and the military’s acceptance of an ASEAN special envoy with full freedom to meet all parties in Myanmar.

President Jokowi is correct in saying that the attack will not deter ASEAN from its efforts to stop human rights violations and restore peace and democracy in Myanmar. The longer the Myanmar crisis persists, the heavier the burden the Myanmar people have to bear and the more vulnerable the region will be to a proliferation of instability.