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Brunei minister named ASEAN envoy to Myanmar
The appointment of ASEAN's special envoy has been a long time coming since the region's leaders met in an emergency meeting in Jakarta in April to discuss the situation in Myanmar following the military coup in February.
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Brunei Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof (right) attends the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting ahead of the 34th ASEAN summit in Bangkok on June 22, 2019. Erywan was named ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar, tasked with mediating talks between the junta regime and prodemocracy groups and putting an end to the conflict. (AFP/TANG CHHIN Sothy )
A
fter more than three months of diplomatic squabbles, ASEAN foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday to appoint Bruneian senior diplomat Erywan Yusof as the bloc’s special envoy to Myanmar, tasked with the unenviable responsibility to find a solution to the political and humanitarian crisis in the country.
The appointment has been a long time coming since ASEAN leaders met in an emergency meeting in Jakarta in April to discuss the situation in Myanmar following the military coup in February. The junta took power from a democratically elected government and used a violent crackdown to ward off massive protests and resistance from prodemocracy groups, killing nearly 1,000 people.
The April summit produced a set of demands called the Five-Point Consensus.
Among these five points is the urgency to appoint a special envoy who would mediate talks between the military regime and various resistance movements.
In June, Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, along with ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi, visited the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw to meet with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing to discuss candidates for the position.
The move was interpreted by the junta as an open invitation to pick from a selection of candidates, which angered Indonesia, who had nominated former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda. Meanwhile, Thailand had nominated former deputy foreign minister Virasakdi Futrakul, who was the preferred candidate for the junta leader due to his close ties to Myanmar’s military.
After weeks of diplomatic tug-of-war, the ASEAN-9 agreed to name Erywan as the special envoy, even though Min Aung Hlaing had already gone public with his choice of the Thai diplomat, further complicating negotiations.
