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Myanmar junta says seeks stability before allowing ASEAN envoy visit
Major Kaung Htet San, a spokesman for the ruling military council, told a televised briefing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, wanted to send a special representative and Myanmar would "cooperate regarding that envoy" when a certain level of security and stability had been achieved.
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General view of the ASEAN leaders' meeting at the bloc's secretariat building in Jakarta on April 24, 2021. (Handout/Agus Suparto/Indonesian Presidential Palace via REUTERS)
M
yanmar's ruling junta is focusing on creating a stable situation in the country before agreeing to allow a visit by a Southeast Asian envoy, as part of a five-point consensus agreed by regional leaders last month, an official said on Friday.
Major Kaung Htet San, a spokesman for the ruling military council, told a televised briefing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, wanted to send a special representative and Myanmar would "cooperate regarding that envoy" when a certain level of security and stability had been achieved, Reuters reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, about 200 non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, on Wednesday called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the military junta in Myanmar.
The call comes despite opposition from China -- the junta's main backer -- and Russia, which both hold veto-wielding power on the Council, to any sanctions amid the months-long crisis in the former Burma.
"No government should sell a single bullet to the junta," which seized power on February 1 in a coup, the NGOs said in a joint statement, quoted by AFP.
"Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military's escalating violence."
Since the junta took power, ousting the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, several groups have called in vain for an arms embargo.
On Monday, China's envoy to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, again told reporters that diplomacy was the way forward, and that efforts by regional grouping ASEAN, to which Myanmar belongs, to find a solution should be supported.
"We are not in favor of imposing sanctions," Zhang said.
For Amnesty's Lawrence Moss, "mere condemnation by the international community has had no effect."
"It is time for the UN Security Council to use its unique powers to impose a comprehensive global arms embargo in order to try and end the military's killing spree," Moss said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Human Rights Watch's Louis Charbonneau said that the fact the Council has not even debated an embargo is "an appalling abdication of its responsibilities toward the people of Myanmar."
"The council's occasional statements of concern in the face of the military's violent repression of largely peaceful protesters is the diplomatic equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and walking away," Charbonneau added.
