ASEAN Countries Urged to Revamp Their Response to Myanmar's Junta

Bangkok: Southeast Asian governments should urgently revamp their response to Myanmar’s abusive junta by coordinating action with the broader international community, Human Rights Watch has said.
 
Despite adopting a "five-point consensus" on the crisis a year ago, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has failed to fulfill its pledges or take meaningful steps toward pressing the junta to end its human rights violations.
 
"Myanmar’s junta has spent the past year committing atrocities in utter disregard for its commitments to ASEAN," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a press release on Frdiay. 

"The ASEAN countries leading on Myanmar – Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – should immediately alter their course to focus on protecting people’s rights and freedoms rather than helping the junta remain in power," she added.
 
At a summit in Jakarta on April 24, 2021, the nine ASEAN leaders and Myanmar junta chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, agreed to five points: an immediate end to violence in the country; dialogue among all parties; the appointment of a special envoy; humanitarian assistance by ASEAN; and the special envoy’s visit to Myanmar to meet with all parties. In the year since, Min Aung Hlaing has defied each point while overseeing a brutal nationwide crackdown aimed at suppressing the millions of people opposed to military rule.
 
Two days after the consensus agreement, the junta walked back its endorsement, announcing it would consider the "suggestions made by ASEAN leaders when the situation returns to stability." Rather than halting attacks as called for, the junta ramped up its abuses. Junta violations since the coup include mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
 
Security forces have killed over 1,700 people, including at least 130 children, and arbitrarily arrested over 13,000. The military has expanded abusive operations in ethnic minority areas, displacing more than 550,000 people. Instead of heeding the consensus by allowing aid delivery, the junta has deliberately blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching populations in need as a form of collective punishment.
 
According to Human Rights Watch, the five-point consensus has become a pretext for governments such as the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and European Union member states to delay real action under the guise of waiting for ASEAN leadership. 
 
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