Hundreds of Myanmar CSOs Demand ASEAN Rejects Pseudo-Civilian Regime

Hundreds of Myanmar civil society organizations at home and abroad have issued an urgent appeal to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), urging the bloc to formally reject the new military-dominated regime.

In an open letter sent on Sunday, 201 groups—including Progressive Voice (PV) and Justice for Myanmar (JFM)—called on ASEAN to bar regime representatives from high-level regional meetings.

The groups noted that the new regime stems from an “immensely violent” sham election that excluded 10.5 million voters while another 11 million boycotted the polls. They added that votes cast in the junta’s December-January election amounted to only half of the 25.9 million recorded in the 2020 election, which the military overturned.

“ASEAN must reject the legitimacy of the military-led façade government, the ‘parliament’ and the representatives emerging from it,” the letter stated.

The groups also urged ASEAN to cut regional supply chains of weapons and aviation fuel driving the regime’s deadly air campaign, while ensuring that no member state serves as a conduit for resources in attacks on civilians.

The letter stated that the regime had conducted 9,794 airstrikes since the 2021 coup, comprising 7,330 bombing raids, 1,305 drone strikes, 820 paramotor attacks, and 339 gyrocopter assaults. The campaign has resulted in 4,853 documented civilian deaths and the destruction of 1,200 civilian structures, including schools and religious sites.

The groups called on ASEAN and its special envoy to engage with democratic actors—including the National Unity Government (NUG) and ethnic revolutionary organizations (EROs)—to build a credible political process grounded in human rights, justice and accountability. They also demanded an immediate end to violence, forced conscription, and the detention of political prisoners.

ASEAN was also called on to actively support international trials, including in member countries Timor-Leste and Indonesia, calling junta figures accountable for war crimes and other atrocities.

Furthermore, the signatories urged ASEAN to bypass the regime and deliver cross-border humanitarian aid directly through the NUG, EROs, and local community organizations. This approach was necessary to address an intensifying humanitarian crisis caused by regime violence and its denial of aid access to those in need.

The groups noted that more than 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Myanmar, while acute food insecurity has reached catastrophic levels, affecting an estimated 12 million people in 2026.

“ASEAN must choose—stand with the people of Myanmar—or risk complicity in the Myanmar military’s ongoing atrocity crimes,” the rights and CSO groups said in their letter.

They called on ASEAN Chair the Philippines to lead a principled, rights-based response to the Myanmar crisis to help secure a federal democratic future.

Ruling generals, including coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, doffed their military uniforms earlier this month to lead a pseudo-civilian government and parliament following their staged election.

Meanwhile, the regime has intensified its campaign of arson raids and airstrikes in resistance territory, killing at least 100 civilians and forcing thousands to flee since March.

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