Asean chair Indonesia says Myanmar human rights abuses cannot be tolerated

Violations of human rights in military-ruled Myanmar cannot be tolerated and violence should be immediately halted and people must be protected, Indonesia’s president said on Thursday at the conclusion of a Southeast Asian leaders summit.

President Joko Widodo, current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), said the bloc must keep pushing for a peace plan to be implemented in Myanmar and Indonesia was ready to talk to anyone with a stake in the conflict, adding that engagement did not mean endorsement or recognition.

“Asean unity is needed to formulate the way forward,” Indonesia’s leader said on Thursday on the island of Labuan Bajo. “But the issue of Myanmar must not hinder the accelerated development of the Asean community, cause this is what we have been waiting for.”

Myanmar, one of the group’s 10 members, is a lingering problem for Asean as violence remains rampant in a country run by a military junta, with no signs that the peace proposal pushed by its neighbours will be adopted any time soon. The junta continues to use force to crack down on its citizens and political parties critical of its authoritarian rule.

In April, more than 50 people were killed following a Myanmar military strike in the Sagaing region. The US condemned the violence and urged Myanmar to “to respect the genuine and inclusive democratic aspirations of the people of Burma.”

While Asean has taken an increasingly tougher stance on Myanmar by banning its military generals from attending regional meetings and actively promoting the peace plan, critics find these steps insufficient and are calling for stronger measures including sanctions. The regional bloc has a policy of non-interference in its members affairs and the group remains divided in resolving Myanmar’s crisis.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim publicly expressed his frustrations. He has said that about 200,000 people have fled to Malaysia to escape the tumult in Myanmar.

“Asean has not been able to resolve most problems, contentious ones,” Anwar told fellow leaders on Wednesday in videotaped remarks he posted on his Twitter account. “We are stuck with the principle of non-intervention.”

“Yes, there is non-interference, but we will have to then have a new vision that could give us some flexibility to navigate and manoeuvre the way forward,” he said.

Asean leaders on Wednesday condemned an attack on an aid convoy that their group had arranged for displaced people in Myanmar, calling for an immediate stop to violence and for the military government to comply with a peace plan.

Asean at ‘crossroad’ as Myanmar violence escalates

Gunmen opened fire on a convoy delivering aid to displaced villagers and carrying Indonesian and Singaporean diplomats over the weekend in Myanmar’s eastern Shan state. A security team with the convoy returned fire and a vehicle was damaged, but there were no injuries, state-run television MRTV reported.

Aside from Myanmar, the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea which involve mainland China, Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, along with Taiwan, were high on the summit agenda.

The bloc urged restraint and peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea and said a surge in missile tests by North Korea was a threat to regional peace.

A post-summit statement issued by chair Indonesia said the leaders welcomed efforts to conclude work on a maritime code of conduct with China and said some leaders were concerned about recent incidents in the South China Sea.

Reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters