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No goodwill yet from Myanmar junta to implement ASEAN peace plan: Retno
The 10-nation bloc of ASEAN, which is hosting a big international gathering this week, has pushed Myanmar to follow a peace "consensus" agreed last year.
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Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn (left) speaks next to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (center) and Brunei Second Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof (right) at a meeting with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) representatives during the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh on August 2, 2022. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)
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ndonesia has not seen any commitment or "goodwill" from the Myanmar military junta to implement a peace plan that it agreed on with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), its foreign minister said late Wednesday.
The 10-nation bloc of ASEAN, which is hosting a big international gathering this week, has pushed Myanmar to follow a peace "consensus" agreed last year.
Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a video statement that some of the countries meeting said that there were "many broken promises" from the junta, Reuters reported.
She said ASEAN foreign ministers had agreed to put out a joint communique from the gathering and paragraphs on Myanmar were being deliberated.
Earlier on Wednesday, current ASEAN chair Cambodia warned Myanmar not to execute any more prisoners after the hanging of four people -- two of them prominent pro-democracy figures -- caused international outrage.
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are discussing how to address the growing crisis in Myanmar at talks in Phnom Penh.
The 10-nation regional bloc has spearheaded so far fruitless efforts to restore peace to the country after a military coup last year, and anger is growing at the junta's stonewalling tactics.
Myanmar executed four prisoners last month in a move roundly condemned by ASEAN members, who are voicing increased frustration at the lack of progress on the bloc's "five-point consensus" plan on Myanmar's conflict.
Agreed in April last year, the plan calls for an immediate end to violence and dialogue between the army and coup opponents.
"If more prisoners are to be executed, we will be forced to rethink our role vis a vis ASEAN's five-point consensus," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said as he opened the foreign ministers' gathering.
Hun Sen said the bloc was "disappointed and disturbed by the execution of these opposition activists despite the appeals from me and others for the death sentences to be reconsidered for the sake of political dialogue, peace and reconciliation".
Malaysia, which has led efforts to get tough on Myanmar's junta, told reporters there must be progress before the ASEAN leaders summit in November.
"If there is no progress, then the leaders will have to ask the hard questions when they meet in November," said Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, adding that suspending Myanmar from the regional bloc was not off the table.
He also described the Myanmar executions -- which came despite personal appeals from Hun Sen -- akin to "a slap".
"They are making a mockery of the five-point consensus, there is no respect to the ASEAN leaders, there is no respect to the ASEAN chair," he told reporters.
