VIENTIANE: Southeast Asian leaders condemned on October 5, 2023, Myanmar's efforts to implement a plan to end the country's civil war as "substantially inadequate," according to a draft summit statement. Myanmar's junta agreed on the five-point plan with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) weeks after seizing power in February 2021 but has still pushed ahead with a bloody crackdown on dissent. Asean has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end the conflict that has killed thousands, forced millions from their homes and driven many young people to seek a better future abroad.
After discussing the conflict at their annual summit, held this year in Vientiane, the leaders of the 10-member bloc demanded the junta take steps to implement the "five-point consensus," saying progress so far had been "substantially inadequate." Asean leaders urged "all stakeholders and parties in Myanmar, in particular the armed forces and security forces concerned, to de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians and public facilities," according to the statement on the Myanmar crisis.
The bloc made similar appeals after summits in 2022 and 2023 but to little effect. The UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said the international response to the war was "clearly not working." Andrews, during a visit to Australia, called for a coordinated effort to starve the junta of "money, weapons and legitimacy." The junta has suffered a series of battlefield defeats in recent months to ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces" that rose up to oppose its coup.
The military government issued an unprecedented invitation to its foes late last month to stop fighting and join talks on ending the war. However, some leading armed groups dismissed the call, which analysts saw as a sop to key junta ally China — which is keen to stop the chaos on its doorstep. Asean leaders held their first face-to-face talks with a senior Myanmar junta representative in more than three years at the summit on October 4, 2023, although the meeting yielded no major breakthrough.
With formal diplomacy making no progress, Thailand will host informal talks on the Myanmar crisis in December involving Asean members and possibly neighbouring countries such as China and India. This follows a meeting last weekend in Jakarta between Asean and other diplomats and representatives of Myanmar armed groups. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Laos on October 5, 2023, for the East Asia Summit the next day, where he will call for more sustained pressure on the junta. — AFP
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