Southeast Asian foreign ministers decided Thursday to persist with a failed peace plan on Myanmar, a move that a top human rights group called \u201ca huge disappointment,\u201d days after the bloodiest single airstrike in the country since last year\u2019s military coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministers emphasized the need to ensure the time-bound implementation of a five-point consensus agreed to with the Burmese junta in April 2021, ASEAN chair Cambodia said after a special meeting in Jakarta of top diplomats from the regional bloc\u2019s member-states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministers \u201creaffirmed the importance and relevance\u201d of the consensus, \u201cand underscored the need to further strengthen its implementation through concrete, practical and time-bound actions,\u201d Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said in a statement after the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The consensus calls for an immediate end to violence; a dialogue among all concerned parties; mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy; provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels; and a visit to Myanmar by the bloc\u2019s special envoy to meet all concerned parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retno Marsudi, Indonesia\u2019s top diplomat, acknowledged that the foreign ministers from member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were disappointed with the lack of significant progress in implementing the five-point consensus, with some expressing their frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead of progressing, the situation was even described as worsening,\u201d Retno said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe approach of sweeping problems under the rug should no longer be an option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, as chair Cambodia\u2019s statement said, the foreign ministers, \u201cagreed that ASEAN should not be discouraged, but even more determined to help Myanmar to bring about a peaceful solution the soonest possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Myanmar\u2019s expulsion from ASEAN was never on the table, according to Sidharto Suryodipuro, director general of ASEAN cooperation at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDiscussions on the situation in Myanmar have always been based on the assumption that Myanmar remains part of ASEAN,\u201d Sidharto told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The special meeting in Jakarta was held to prepare recommendations to be submitted to ASEAN leaders at the summit of the 10-nation bloc in Cambodia next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discontent has been growing among some ASEAN members about the junta reneging on the consensus it had agreed to, and amid the relentless violence, especially the execution of four political prisoners in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The violence has only increased since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least 63 people were killed after Myanmar military jets Sunday dropped munitions on a crowd attending a concert celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)\u2019s founding. It was believed to be the deadliest single airstrike since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saifuddin Abdullah, Malaysia\u2019s outspoken top diplomat, in July had raised the prospect of junking the five-point consensus. Last month in New York, he had questioned its validity, because the junta had been blithely ignoring it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Saifuddin, who has consistently taken the lead on post-coup Myanmar issues at ASEAN, was absent from the special meeting in Jakarta, because his government is now a caretaker administration after the announcement of a general election next month in Malaysia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven ASEAN foreign ministers attended the talks in Jakarta in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As in several previous meetings, Myanmar was not represented, Prak said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vietnam\u2019s foreign minister was busy preparing for a visit by the head of the Vietnamese communist party to China next week, according to an ASEAN diplomatic source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Junta has shown its contempt for ASEAN\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, minced no words in expressing his dismay about the outcome of Thursday\u2019s meeting in Jakarta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cASEAN has reached a make or break point on Myanmar, but the Special Foreign Ministers meeting statement reflected just more business as usual, and that\u2019s a huge disappointment. It\u2019s hard to see how the Five Point Consensus can be saved when the SAC military junta has failed to implement one word of what Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing promised in Jakarta last year,\u201d he said in a statement, referring to the Burmese military chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead of the kind of wishy-washy language contained in the [ASEAN] chairperson\u2019s statement today, ASEAN needs to get tough by establishing clear, time bound human rights benchmarks on Myanmar that include the release of political prisoners, a cessation of attacks on civilians, and steps towards dissolving the junta to allow for the establishment of civilian democratic rule,\u201d Robertson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose benchmarks should be accompanied by clear penalties should Myanmar fail to meet them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ASEAN will have to do more than repeat calls for an end to violence and the need for dialogue and negotiation, said Hunter S. Marston, a researcher on Asia at the Australian National University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose conditions are unrealistic at this point, and the junta has shown its contempt for ASEAN and its diplomatic efforts,\u201d he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ASEAN will never expel Myanmar, but it should include representatives from the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) to promote dialogue, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For its part, the NUG said the benefit of ASEAN holding on to the five-point consensus was questionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cASEAN leaders know all too well what Myanmar people want and need. We have just heard Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, the United Nations envoy to Myanmar, say the other day that Myanmar\u2019s people can never accept the military junta,\u201d Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the NUG\u2019s president office told the Burmese Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf ASEAN believes the same, I think they should have direct dialogue with the NUG, the real government that represents the wish of Myanmar people and the national ethnic groups to put an end to all these crises,\u201d Kyaw Zaw added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on the outcome of Thursday\u2019s meeting and because ASEAN makes its decisions consensually, one Burmese analyst, Sai Kyi Zin Soe, did not foresee much progress being made at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cASEAN member countries seem to be split into two: the West-leaning and the pro-China, and they are not sure of their stand between the two either. Some member countries favor the idea that the NUG should be invited as the West suggested whereas the others still hold the belief that the Myanmar military junta can be further reasoned with for progress,\u201d Sai Kyi Zin Soe told RFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause of these different views among ASEAN countries, the summit, in my opinion, might not be able to make a common decision that Myanmar people desire, or a common decision that leads to effective changes for Myanmar people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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