The plan, which was adopted in April 2021, shortly after the military seized power in a takeover that sparked a civil war, calls for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar | (AP/file photo
Nine members of the United Nations Security Council condemned the Myanmar military’s indiscriminate airstrikes on civilians, before an envoy briefed the council on Monday as part of regional efforts to implement a peace plan that has so far been largely ineffective .
The plan, adopted in April 2021 shortly after the military seized power in a takeover that sparked a civil war, calls for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar, dialogue between all parties involved and mediation by a special envoy of the Southeast Asia Association. Nations, provision of humanitarian assistance through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the Special Envoy to meet all relevant parties.
Veteran diplomat Alounkeo Kittikhoun, the special envoy to Myanmar of this year’s ASEAN chair Laos, and a former UN ambassador addressed a closed council meeting on behalf of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Kittikhoun is committed to implementing the ASEAN five-point consensus for peace in Myanmar through continued quiet diplomacy,” said a council diplomat familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.
Myanmar’s military leadership has so far ignored the plan, and violence and the humanitarian crisis in the country have rapidly increased.
Before the council meeting, nine of the fifteen council members stood before reporters to support a statement read by Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward, which reiterated ASEAN’s call specifically calling on Myanmar’s armed forces to stop attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
The military took power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021 and is facing an armed pro-democracy resistance movement aided by ethnic minority forces. The military stepped up airstrikes after the three ethnic minority armed groups launched a major offensive in late October, capturing towns in the country’s northeast along with major border crossings for trade with China.
The nine council members Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States said that three years after the military takeover, more than 18 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and that 2.6 million people still need humanitarian assistance. are always displaced.
At an ASEAN ministerial meeting on January 29, Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith told reporters that Thailand is moving forward with plans to provide more humanitarian aid to Myanmar. The nine countries reiterated the council’s call for better humanitarian access.
They expressed growing concern about the situation in Rakhine State, bordering Bangladesh, where more than one million Rohingya Muslims fled in August 2017 when the military in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar launched a brutal clearing operation against them after attacks by the rebel Arakan -army.
The Arakan Army is part of the alliance of ethnic minority fighters. A Bangladesh official said on Monday that more than 100 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police fled fighting with the Arakan Army in Rakhine over the past two days and entered Bangladesh. It is the first known time that Myanmar troops have fled the country since the armies of ethnic minorities. offensive began.
The nine councils expressed growing concern that the Rohingya who remain in Myanmar and have faced systematic discrimination for decades are now facing increased restrictions on freedom of movement and denial of access to medicines and medical care. They demanded the implementation of the first-ever Security Council resolution on Myanmar, adopted in December 2022, which calls for an immediate end to violence and the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, including Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint.
Myanmar’s U.N. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who still represents Suu Kyi’s ousted government, urged the Security Council on Monday to adopt a stronger, enforceable resolution, saying: Democratic forces are gaining ground and military junta loses every day.
The nine council members said they remain deeply concerned about the lack of progress on the resolution’s call for all parties to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and the democratic will and interests of the people of Myanmar.
The council diplomat said there was no unanimity at Monday’s meeting on next steps, although there was widespread concern about the escalating situation across the country with military fighting on several fronts, the risk of atrocities in Rakhine and the need for better humanitarian access. .
The United States has pushed for an enforceable Security Council resolution to prevent Myanmar from receiving jet fuel, the council diplomat said.
The US, UK, European Union and others imposed sanctions on jet fuel supplies to Myanmar in 2023, but Amnesty International reported on January 31 that new evidence suggests Myanmar’s military is using new tactics to evade sanctions.
The rights group called 2023 the worst year for airstrikes in Myanmar since the takeover, and said at least seven shipments of jet fuel to Myanmar were directly linked to a storage unit in Vietnam, an ASEAN member.
According to the council diplomat, China, which has close ties with Myanmar, emphasized the need to give ASEAN’s efforts time and space. Russia, which also has ties to Myanmar, reiterated that the council should not interfere in the country’s internal affairs.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: February 6, 2024 | 12:47 pm IST