Myanmar junta chief to join ASEAN summit
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will join a special ASEAN summit next week, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, his first official trip since masterminding a coup which deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The February 1 putsch triggered a massive uprising, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets to demand a return to democracy, while civil servants have boycotted work in a bid to shutter the junta’s administration.
The military has deployed lethal force to quell the anti-coup movement, killing more than 720 people and detaining some 3,100 activists, journalists and dissidents, according to a local monitoring group.
The international community has largely condemned the generals for use of force against unarmed civilians - imposing targeted sanctions against top military brass, their families and army-linked businesses.
But regional leaders have sought to open communications with the regime, and on Saturday Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Jakarta on Myanmar’s situation will include the senior general.
“Several leaders have confirmed their attendance including Myanmar’s MAH (Min Aung Hlaing),” said spokesman Tanee Sangrat in a message to reporters.
The meeting of the ten-country bloc of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to address the ongoing crisis in post-coup Myanmar, and will be on April 24 in Jakarta. The announcement drew dismay from activists, who have long beseeched foreign leaders not to recognise the junta.
‘#ASEAN do not legitimize the Myanmar Military junta as a government by inviting MAH to attend the summit,’ said prominent activist Wai Wai Nu on Twitter. ‘(The) Junta is illegitimate and illegal.’
The military has consistently justified the putsch by alleging widespread fraud in November's elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide.
They claim power will be handed back to a civilian administration after elections are held in about a year - though they recently extended the timeline to a two-year period.
New Year crackdown
Saturday was the first day of Myanmar’s traditional New Year, and hundreds in commercial hub Yangon visited the famed Shwedagon Pagoda to pray as soldiers patrolled the streets.
Leading up to the Buddhist New Year, the Thingyan festivities were a sombre affair - a far cry from previous years when revellers would take to the streets for city-wide water fights.
Instead, activists sloshed crimson paint in Yangon to symbolise the bloodshed, while protesters wore red across the country in nationwide demonstrations. More violence erupted on Saturday in the central gemproducing city of Mogok, when security forces cracked down on protesters.
According to an AFP-verified video filmed by a resident, soldiers crouched on a street as their commanding officer shouted that he wanted ‘deaths’.
A rescue worker told AFP at least one had died. “He was shot in the stomach,” he said, adding that six others injured had to be rushed to the hospital.
Despite the threat of violence, protesters have continued to gather across the country in defiance of the junta, carrying posters demanding for Suu Kyi to be freed.
Some demonstrations - like in Yangon and central Monywa city - also touted support of the socalled ‘National Unity Government’, a shadow administration formed by ousted MPs working in hiding to thwart junta rule.
“It has been more than 70 days since the coup... we can no longer see our future and goals,” said 19 year old Max in Yangon.