The Burmese military must restore democracy and stop committing violence against citizens, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said after crisis talks with Burmese junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and Southeast Asian leaders yesterday.
The strongly worded statement followed a meeting of ASEAN in Jakarta, which marked the Burmese general’s first foreign trip since security forces on Feb. 1 staged a coup that ousted Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Min Aung Hlaing has become the focus of international outrage over the coup and a subsequent crackdown on dissent that has left more than 700 dead.
Photo: AFP
“The first requested commitment is for the Myanmar military to stop the use of violence and that all parties there at the same time must refrain so that tensions can be reduced,” Widodo said yesterday. “The violence must be stopped and democracy, stability and peace in Myanmar must be restored.”
He also called for the release of political prisoners and for a special envoy to be allowed into the country to “push for dialogue.”
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) called on the military to release Myanmar’s ousted president, as well as democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
The meeting followed mass protests, which have been met by a brutal crackdown that has left blood on the streets.
An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced, a UN envoy has said, with Myanmar’s top democratically elected leaders in hiding or under house arrest.
Also at the meeting was the Sultan of Brunei, the chair of ASEAN, and leaders and foreign ministers from most of the 10-country group, including Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos.
Small protests outside the bloc’s Jakarta headquarters were dispersed by security personnel.
In Myanmar, protesters continued to take to the streets, including in northern Kachin State, where demonstrators wore blue shirts to symbolize detainees.
In commercial hub Yangon, some residents staged a mock funeral for the senior general by smashing saffron-colored clay pots on the ground, symbolic of cutting ties with the dead.
The general’s involvement in the Jakarta talks has angered advocates, human rights groups and a shadow government of ousted Burmese lawmakers, which was not invited to the gathering.
“Meetings that contribute to a solution to the deepening crisis in Myanmar are welcome,” the latter said in a statement. However, “meetings that exclude the people of Myanmar, but include murderer-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing ... are unlikely to be helpful.”
Separately, the Burmese military fired warning shots above a civilian boat carrying Thai border patrol officers amid heightened tensions in border areas since the junta seized power, but Thailand yesterday said the incident was a misunderstanding.
Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Tanee Sangrat said the warning shots on Thursday were used to signal boats for inspection due to the lack of official coordination method on the section of the Salween River, where Thailand and Myanmar share a border.
Additional reporting by Reuters
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would