Global Civil Society Groups Urge ASEAN to Stop Engaging Myanmar Junta

Some 285 local, regional, and international civil society organizations have urged Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the current rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to cut all ties with the Myanmar military junta.

Instead, they called on Anwar to engage officially with Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government and ethnic resistance organizations to effectively address the country’s crisis.

The statement came in an open letter a few days before the 46th ASEAN Summit, which Malaysia hosts.

In the letter, the CSOs urgently call for Anwar’s leadership in unifying and steering ASEAN “to adopt a stronger, more principled stance and take concerted efforts to address the intensifying multifaceted crisis in Myanmar.”

They reminded Anwar that Myanmar has been in social and political crisis since the military coup in 2021, with nationwide fighting between the junta and anti-regime resistance forces and allied ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) to restore democracy and establish a federal union. The fighting so far has displaced more than 3.5 million people.

Following the coup, ASEAN formulated a five-point peace plan for Myanmar but it has barely made progress as the junta refused to honor the plan. The bloc has banned the regime’s leadership from its summits but admitted some officials with no political titles.

But since Anwar became chairman, he held talks with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in April to push for a ceasefire for humanitarian aid following the massive earthquake in March that killed more than 3,800 people. The prime minister also met with representatives from the NUG.

Since then, the junta has conducted at least 171 airstrikes, the vast majority on civilian areas.

The CSOs condemned the meeting, saying it was “far from being a diplomatic necessity” and “a grave misstep that further harms the people.”

They urged Malaysia to “immediately and unequivocally sever all ties with the junta, and use its position as ASEAN chair to “unify and lead the bloc […] in support of Myanmar to dismantle the military regime and establish federal democracy.”

“We expect that Malaysia recognizes the gravity of this call and will ensure no junta representatives are permitted to participate in any ASEAN meetings at any level-including the upcoming summit,” the letter added.

The CSOs also urged ASEAN to begin formal and open engagements with the NUG and ethnic armed groups as well as Myanmar civil society to gain the confidence of the Myanmar people.

“Only then can the bloc move beyond the failed Five-Point Consensus and support a Myanmar-owned and -led solution, as it so often claims to do,” it said.

ASEAN will hold two meetings specifically on Myanmar ahead of its summit next week.

In an interview with Reuters, ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn said the meetings would tackle no other issue but Myanmar.

He said the first meeting would involve the current, previous, and next ASEAN chair nations—Malaysia, Laos, and the Philippines—and the second would be of the bloc’s foreign ministers.

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