KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia’s regional bloc should increase pressure upon Myanmar’s junta or even there will be more demise and suffering, the UN expert warned on Thursday (Jun 23), after a long period of stalled diplomacy.
Myanmar has been in turmoil and its economy paralysed since the February 2021 coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been transferred from home arrest to one confinement in jail this week.
Attempts by the 10-member Organization of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create peace to the country – which is a member of the bloc — have stalled since fighting continues to trend.
Last year, they will agreed on the alleged ” five-point consensus inch, which calls for the cessation of assault and constructive dialogue, but the junta provides ignored it.
Divisions in ASEAN, long criticised like a toothless talking shop, have also complicated attempts to resolve the crisis.
Asked about the bloc’s efforts, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human being rights in Myanmar, said that “clearly, a lot more needs to be done”.
“The longer we wait, the more inaction that there is, the more people are going to die, the greater people are going to endure, ” he said.
“The people of Myanmar cannot take another 12 months of inaction, inch added Andrews, speaking at the end of a visit to ASEAN member Malaysia, which has strongly criticised the coup.
He said the five-point consensus, hammered out at a conference in Jakarta within April 2021, is “meaningless if it sits on a piece of paper”.
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