Myanmar Military Refuses to Allow ASEAN Envoy to Meet Suu Kyi

Yangon, MINA – Myanmar’s military defended its decision to deny the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy access to jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The decision countered international pressure to urge the military to adhere to a regional peace plan agreed at a meeting of ASEAN leaders in April, Antara News Agency reported.

Senior Deputy General Soe Win, the second-in-command of the junta that seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February, said allowing foreigners access to someone charged with a crime is against Myanmar’s domestic law.

“I believe no country will allow anyone to do something outside the existing law like this,” he said in a speech published in state media on Wednesday.

Soe Win’s remarks followed last week’s ASEAN summit which Myanmar did not attend, in protest at the exclusion of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing from the summit for not respecting the peace deal.

Myanmar is said to violate ASEAN’s principles of consensus and non-intervention, and refuses to send non-political representatives.

Soe Win rejected accusations of non-compliance and said the deal with ASEAN was contingent on Myanmar’s “current internal affairs”, with special envoys’ access to the country “based on internal stability”.

Soe Win’s objection was delivered in a virtual meeting of ASEAN auditors, on Tuesday.

He said the demands for Myanmar made at last week’s summit “suspiciously violate ASEAN’s image of solidarity”.

Myanmar has been crippled by protests, strikes and violence since the coup.

The junta struggles to govern and faces armed resistance from ethnic minority militias and rebels allied with a shadow government it calls “terrorists”.

More than 1,200 civilians have been killed by security forces, according to local monitoring groups cited by the United Nations. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)