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Indonesia pushes to implement failed Myanmar peace plan ahead of ASEAN meetings

July 7, 2023/in News

The crisis in Myanmar is expected to be one of the main topics at meetings hosted by Indonesia next week. ASEAN chair Indonesia said Friday it was increasing efforts to implement a five-point consensus to end instability in post-coup Myanmar, while Burmese civil society groups called for junking the “ineffective” plan amid divisions within the […]

Myanmar junta forces murder seven civilians in Wetlet village

July 7, 2023/in News

Regime troops killed seven people and injured several others in three separate incidents in and around the village of Thamayoe in Sagaing Region’s Wetlet Township on Thursday, according to local sources. Phoe Lwin, a 55-year-old fishmonger, was reportedly shot dead when he ran into a junta column just outside of the village, which is located […]

Indonesia pushes to implement failed Myanmar peace plan ahead of ASEAN meetings

July 7, 2023/in News

Myanmar junta forces murder seven civilians in Wetlet village

July 7, 2023/in News

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Indonesia pushes to implement failed Myanmar peace plan ahead of ASEAN meetings

July 7, 2023/in News

The crisis in Myanmar is expected to be one of the main topics at meetings hosted by Indonesia next week.

ASEAN chair Indonesia said Friday it was increasing efforts to implement a five-point consensus to end instability in post-coup Myanmar, while Burmese civil society groups called for junking the “ineffective” plan amid divisions within the regional bloc.

The crisis in Myanmar is expected to be one of the main topics at a series of ministerial-level meetings that Indonesia will host next week as the 2023 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The talks will involve ASEAN members and other countries, including the United States, China and Russia.

Jakarta has been communicating with all parties in Myanmar to persuade them to support implementing the consensus, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.

“We have conducted 110 engagements, in the form of in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and phone calls, including my own face-to-face meetings with both the NUG and SAC foreign ministers on several occasions,” Retno told reporters, referring to the National Unity Government, the shadow civilian administration, and the junta, which calls itself the State Administration Council.

ASEAN leaders agreed on the consensus during an emergency summit in April 2021, but the Southeast Asian bloc has since been heavily criticized for inaction in pressing ahead with the five-point plan.

It aims to reduce violence in Myanmar after the Burmese military toppled an elected government in February that year. The plan demands an immediate halt to violence, a constructive dialogue among all parties, the appointment of a special envoy, the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the visit of a delegation to Myanmar.

The junta agreed to this consensus but reneged on it, prompting ASEAN to exclude any representative from the Myanmar junta from its meetings, starting in October 2021.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi speaks during a news conference in Jakarta, July 7, 2023. (Achmad Ibrahim/AP)

‘Most ASEAN states have no interest in democracy’

Meanwhile, a network of Burmese civil society groups, which calls itself Myanmar Spring’s young revolutionaries, said the exclusion was a mirage, because Indonesia, through its office of the special envoy, was engaging with the junta.

“[T]he Special Envoy’s official engagement with the illegal military junta is inconsistent with ASEAN’s decision and stance to exclude and ban members of the military junta from all high-level ASEAN meetings,” representatives of several civil society groups told Ngurah Swajaya, the head of the special envoy’s office, according to a statement issued Friday.

The groups’ representatives had met with Ngurah on Monday.

“[T]he representatives expressed their concern and frustration over the ineffectiveness and failure of ASEAN to stop the terrorist military junta’s violence and atrocities against Myanmar people over the past two years since the adoption of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) on 24 April 2021,” the statement said.

They also conveyed to Ngurah that “the ineffective 5PC will only embolden the terrorist junta to commit further crimes and exacerbate the plight of the people of Myanmar.”

Indonesia’s president, too, acknowledged in May that there had been no progress in implementing the peace plan.

All along, Myanmar’s junta has cracked down on mass protests, killed more than 3,000 people and arrested thousands more, according to human rights groups. The United Nations said more than 1.8 million people had been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar because of violence since the coup.

And yet, ASEAN “continues to stick to a plan agreed in April 2021 that has palpably failed,” said CIVICUS Lens, a group that analyzes current events from a civil society perspective.

“A major challenge is that most ASEAN states have no interest in democracy. Half of them are outright authoritarian regimes, and the other half could be characterized as democracies with flaws – sometimes serious flaws,” the group wrote in an article in late June.

“Continuing emphasis on the 5PC as the baseline consensus, however, hasn’t masked divisions among ASEAN states. … But the fact that they’re formally sticking with it enables the wider international community to stand back and do little, on the basis of respecting regional leadership and giving the 5PC a chance.”

Of ASEAN’s 10 members, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are not democracies, and Thailand’s outgoing government first came to power much like the current Myanmar junta, via a military coup.

CIVICUS Lens also noted Thailand’s decision to break ranks with ASEAN and engage in talks with the Myanmar military.

Indonesia on Friday again dismissed the Thai meeting in June as not a formal one.

“Regarding the informal meeting in Thailand, once again it was an informal meeting of ASEAN and only the foreign minister of Laos attended. The 5PC is the main track for resolving the Myanmar issue,” Foreign Minister Retno said.

However, in addition to Thailand and Myanmar, representatives of ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines – as well as India and China – attended the meeting in Pattaya.

Some experts say that ASEAN’s approach to Myanmar reflects its limitations as a consensus-based organization that prioritizes stability and non-interference in its members’ domestic affairs.

Additionally, while Jakarta should be praised for holding so many meetings with different stakeholders, it was impossible to assess the progress of its diplomatic engagements as they were confidential, said Hunter Marston, a researcher at the Australian National University.

“It’s also possible that the Indonesian government has underestimated the degree to which the current conflict is entrenched and the unwillingness of the warring sides to consider a peaceful settlement that does not include the complete eradication of the other side,” he told BenarNews.

He said that the outcome of Indonesia’s efforts remained uncertain.

“If nothing materializes by the end of Indonesia’s chairmanship, however, then everyone will point and say, ‘See? There was never a chance of progress to begin with’,” he said.

RFA News

Myanmar junta forces murder seven civilians in Wetlet village

July 7, 2023/in News

Phoe Lwin, a 55-year-old fishmonger, was reportedly shot dead when he ran into a junta column just outside of the village, which is located on the eastern bank of the Muu River some 25km west of the township’s administrative centre.

Then, at around 4:30am, the same column opened fire on a truck that was carrying six women to a neighbouring village to sell goods in the local market, according to Thamayoe residents.

The truck’s driver and three of his passengers were killed instantly, and at least one of the other women was said to be in critical condition.

“They shot at the tractor from the front, hitting the engine many times. The women had many gunshot wounds. Some were killed right away by shots to the head, while others bled to death,” said a local man who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.

The four who were killed were identified as the 27-year-old driver, Lwin Moe, and three of his passengers: Hnin Hlaing, 57, Aye Nu Win, 40, and Nu Khine, 46.

“It infuriates me that they did this to civilians for no reason. It wouldn’t be so painful if the victims were resistance fighters,” said the local man.

Resistance forces operating in the area said they had to wait until around 6am to rescue the survivors, as some of the junta troops stayed behind to shoot anyone who approached the victims.

“They were shot all over their bodies and their wounds were very bad. We couldn’t save everyone, as some had already died,” said an officer of the Shwebo District People’s Defence Force (PDF).

After this second shooting, the junta column of around 60 soldiers entered Thamayoe, where they proceeded to kill two more villagers.

Phyu Phyu San, 30, and Thein Hlaing, 62, were both shot to death on sight while trying to run away from the approaching soldiers, according to the PDF officer and other sources.

Two of the women who were killed by junta troops near the village of Thamayoe in Wetlet Township on July 6 (Supplied)

“The woman was shot in the chest, arms and legs, while the man was shot in the head at point blank range. His brains were splattered all over the place. They ran into the assaulting junta column while trying to flee,” he said.

The column then ransacked several houses in the village and looted shops in the market before crossing the Muu River to Ayadaw Township sometime before noon.

The bodies of the deceased were all cremated later the same day, according to a member of a local volunteer group who helped to recover their remains.

“It was heartbreaking, but I braced myself and retrieved the bodies. The fact that they were just civilians made it that much sadder,” he said.

In late June, another junta column of around 100 troops reportedly killed four civilians during raids on villages in western Wetlet Township.

The military also carried out a series of airstrikes on villages near the town of Wetlet on June 29.

The column responsible for Thursday’s killings reportedly left Shwebo Township the day before and spent the night in Ywar Thar Gyi, a village located about 13km east of Thamayoe.

Myanmar Now News

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ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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