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ASEAN summit on Myanmar crisis likely this month

A planned high-stakes summit is likely to be pushed back to the weekend of April 24, even as the violence continues and international patience grows thin.

Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, April 16, 2021

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ASEAN summit on Myanmar crisis likely this month

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SEAN leaders look set to convene an important crisis meeting on Myanmar on the weekend of April 24, nearly a month after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called for the summit amid continued violence following the military coup.

The Indonesian leader had called for a high-level meeting on March 19, following an earlier informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that saw an appeal to get the junta to stop the violence and open talks only fall on deaf ears.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Jokowi’s proposal was supported by powers such as China and Russia, signaling ASEAN’s greater role in coordinating a response to the grim situation that continues to pose a threat to regional stability.

Both countries are veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council that previously blocked a call for sanctions against Myanmar’s post-coup regime amid rising tensions and a growing body count.

Last week, Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who leads the monarchy’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year, issued a statement asking officials to prepare for a meeting in Jakarta, where the ASEAN Secretariat is situated.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said officials were looking to convene the meeting on April 24 at the recently renovated compound, although he noted that the final decision lay with the chair.

“There is this indication, but we are still waiting on Brunei’s confirmation,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, adding that the timing could still change until the Sultan announced a final date.

The schedule and details of the meeting have been touchy subjects for ASEAN, which works by consensus and has traditionally shunned the public shaming of its members, as international patience grows thin over the lack of an effective response to stop the violence against civilians.

Read also: Myanmar could be heading towards 'Syrian-style' conflict

It is not yet confirmed whether the summit would feature representatives of the ruling junta or the former government.

At a UN Security Council session on the weekend, AFP quoted diplomats citing France’s deputy ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst, who claimed that the upcoming summit was to be held on April 20.

However, Faizasyah dismissed this possibility, saying that some ASEAN leaders, including President Jokowi, had already committed to other engagements that day.

The crisis in Myanmar is being considered a litmus test for ASEAN, with the international community becoming increasingly frustrated over the military junta’s resistance against calls to stop its bloody crackdown on civilians.

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, usurped power from the civilian government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, which was followed up by a campaign of terror to suppress pro-democracy protests.

More than 700 people have been killed and thousands detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an activist group documenting the violence.

As an intergovernmental organization consisting of countries with diverse political systems, ASEAN has struggled to come up with an apt and timely response to the crisis in Myanmar, as some member states insist on keeping to the principle of noninterference, while others urged for more involvement.

Hundreds of civil society groups from across Southeast Asia issued a joint declaration earlier this week, calling ASEAN to appoint and send a special envoy to Myanmar alongside a delegation representing ASEAN nations, to work together with the Security Council in engaging all relevant parties with a view to ending the violence and help reach a political solution.

Read also: Myanmar’s ousted lawmakers tell ASEAN to pick a side

The movement was convened by José Ramos-Horta, another Nobelist and former leader of Timor-Leste, and former Indonesian deputy foreign minister Dino Patti Djalal, who founded the nation’s largest foreign policy-focused civil society network, FPCI.

The joint declaration also suggested that ASEAN could employ various existing mechanisms through the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) to help address the crisis.

The bloc could also provide humanitarian assistance through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), the civil society groups said. The AHA Centre previously worked in Myanmar to address the Rohingya refugee crisis.

ASEAN foreign ministers previously said they stood ready to assist Myanmar “in a positive, peaceful and constructive manner,” Brunei said in a recent chairman’s statement.

Moe Thuzar, a fellow and co-coordinator of the Myanmar studies program at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that, despite ASEAN’s shortcomings, there were still creative ways and means to promote its “substantive central role”, beyond its role of convenor.

“ASEAN does not follow the practice of sanctions, but examining ways and means of limiting economic interactions, which may [require] some of the targeted sanctions imposed by countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and others, or connections with entities that are related to or [are] proxies of the junta, I think can send an equally effective message,” she said in a recent webinar.

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