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Junta leader could be barred from ASEAN summit if Myanmar fails to cooperate: Malaysia
Saifuddin Abdullah in a Tweet said he expressed disappointment at a meeting of his ASEAN counterparts over the non-cooperation of Myanmar's ruling military council. Myanmar's top general in April committed to a five-step peace roadmap following its Feb. 1 coup, Reuters reported.
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Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (left) gestures as he is welcomed upon his arrival ahead of the ASEAN leaders' summit at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten on April 24, 2021. (Handout/Rusman/Indonesian Presidential Palace via REUTERS)
M
yanmar's failure to cooperate with a special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will make it difficult to have the country's junta leader attend an upcoming summit of the group, Malaysia's foreign minister said on Monday.
Saifuddin Abdullah in a Tweet said he expressed disappointment at a meeting of his ASEAN counterparts over the non-cooperation of Myanmar's ruling military council. Myanmar's top general in April committed to a five-step peace roadmap following its Feb. 1 coup, Reuters reported.
Late last week, Myanmar's junta has said it was unlikely an ASEAN special envoy tasked with facilitating dialogue in the coup-hit country would be allowed to meet ousted pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been under global pressure to help resolve the crisis in member state Myanmar, where more than 1,100 people have been killed in post-coup violence according to a monitoring group.
Brunei Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, who was selected as the bloc's envoy in August after lengthy wrangling, has called for full access to all parties when he visits.
But a junta spokesman told AFP on Thursday it would be "difficult to allow for meetings with those who are facing trial."
"We will allow for meeting with official organisations," added spokesman Zaw Min Tun, without giving further details on when Myanmar would give permission for the envoy to visit.
Suu Kyi, 76, is currently on trial for a raft of charges, flouting coronavirus restrictions during polls her party won in a landslide last year, illegally importing walkie talkies and sedition.
She faces decades in prison if convicted on all charges.
Her lawyers said last week that the Nobel laureate has not received any meeting request yet from local and foreign organisations.
"Without meeting [Suu Kyi] there will be no result," political analyst Mg Mg Soe told AFP.
"They can move another step to proceed how they can negotiate only after listening from both sides."
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has promised to hold elections and lift a state of emergency by August 2023, extending a timeline given shortly after the coup.
Meanwhile, Suu Kyi's lawyer said that the pro-democracy leader's health has suffered from her frequent appearances before a court run by the military junta that deposed her government.
Suu Kyi went on trial in June, four months after she was taken into custody in a coup that plunged the country into turmoil.
The 76-year-old faces a raft of charges, from sedition to illegally importing walkie-talkies, which could see her jailed for decades.
She applied for hearings to take place every two weeks instead of weekly "on the grounds of her health," her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said after her latest court appearance.
After new corruption charges were brought against her last week, the Nobel laureate now must appear most weekdays at a courtroom in the military-built capital Naypyidaw.
The trial had left Suu Kyi feeling "strained", Khin Maung Zaw said, without offering more details.
He added that the judge would make a decision on her request next week.
