Myanmar’s shadow government of ousted lawmakers has welcomed a call by Southeast Asian leaders for an end to “military violence” after their crisis talks in Jakarta with Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The junta leader on Saturday attended a high-level summit with ASEAN leaders to discuss Myanmar’s mounting crisis.
Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar has been in an uproar with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.
Photo: Reuters
Security forces have deployed live ammunition to quell the demonstrations, killing more than 740 people in brutal crackdowns, local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has said.
The ASEAN meeting produced a consensus that there would be “an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar,” the bloc said on Saturday.
It added that ASEAN would also have a special envoy to “facilitate mediation” between all parties, and that the representative could travel to Myanmar.
However, while they “heard calls for the release of all political prisoners,” a commitment to free them was not included in the consensus statement.
On Saturday, a spokesperson from the shadow government — known as the National Unity Government — said that ASEAN’s statement was “encouraging news.”
“We look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and restore our democracy and freedom for our people and for the region,” said Sasa, the National Unity Government’s minister of international cooperation, who is in hiding with the rest of his fellow lawmakers.
The lawmakers — most of whom were part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party — are wanted for high treason by the military.
Overnight, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that the bloc would continue to call for the release of all political prisoners.
As Myanmar nears three months under the military regime, escalating violence by its security forces — especially in urban centers — has pushed protesters and prominent advocates into hiding.
The military has also reduced communications across the country, imposing a nightly Internet shutdown for 70 consecutive days and restricting mobile data to a mere trickle.
By Saturday, the number of detainees climbed to 3,389, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said.
Yesterday, independent news outlet The Irrawaddy said that former editor Thu Thu Tha was arrested in Thanlyin, a city across the river from Yangon.
“In spite of Min Aung Hlaing’s appearance at the ASEAN summit, it’s business as usual,” Irrawaddy founder Aung Zaw told reporters, adding that most of his staff members are in hiding.
On Saturday, as the junta chief attended the meeting with ASEAN leaders and foreign ministers in Jakarta, soldiers and police fired on protesters near Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw.
One 50-year-old protester was held by the police and shot dead by a soldier, an eyewitness told reporters.
Despite the threat of violence, protesters across Myanmar continued to take to the streets yesterday — from the northern jade mining city of Hpakant to eastern Karenni state.
In central Myingyan — where brutal crackdowns have forced residents to hide in nearby villages — protesters smeared red paint on some of the city’s buildings to protest the bloodshed.
“Give power back to the people,” read graffiti on the city’s sidewalks.
State-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar yesterday reported on Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Jakarta, saying that he discussed the country’s “political changes.”
However, it made no mention of ASEAN’s consensus for a halt to violence.
Independent UN human rights expert for Myanmar Tom Andrews said that it remains to be seen how effective the bloc’s engagement is.
“The result of the ASEAN summit will be found in Myanmar, not [in] a document,” Andrews wrote on Twitter yesterday. “Will the killing stop? Will the terrorizing of neighborhoods end?”
The military has justified its power seizure as a means to protect democracy, alleging electoral fraud in elections last year, in which Aung San Suu Kyi’s party had won in a landslide.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS