Cambodian ex-PM request to meet Suu Kyi rejected
– Myanmar’s junta on Wednesday denied a request by Cambodia’s former prime minister Hun Sen for talks with detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi has largely been hidden from view since the military detained her after seizing power in the Feb. 1, 2021 coup that has plunged the Southeast Asian country into turmoil.
The junta has rebuffed numerous requests by foreign leaders and diplomats to meet the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 78, who has reportedly suffered health problems during more than three years in detention.
Hun Sen, who led Cambodia for nearly four decades before stepping down last year, said on Tuesday he had requested a meeting with Suu Kyi during video talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
But the junta had “no reason to facilitate it at this moment,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in an audio message released by the military’s information team.
The military would hold promised and much-delayed fresh elections “without fail,” he said, without giving details.
“We are going to avoid matters which can delay or disturb future processes,” he added.
Since her detention, Suu Kyi’s only known encounter with a foreign envoy came last July, when Thailand’s then-Foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said he had met her for over an hour.
Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence imposed by a junta court after a trial condemned by rights groups as a sham to shut her out of politics.
Last month, the junta said she was being “given necessary care” as temperatures in the military-built capital
Naypyitaw, where she is believed to be detained, hit around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Zaw Min Tun also addressed Thai media reports that former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra recently held talks with several Myanmar ethnic armed groups operating along their shared border.
Some of those groups have given shelter and military training to those fighting the junta’s coup and have themselves clashed regularly with the military.
“We assume that encouraging terrorists groups which destroy Myanmar interests is not appropriate,” Zaw Min Tun said.
The military launched its coup citing unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud in 2020 elections, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.
It has pushed back a timetable to hold fresh polls several times.
In March, Min Aung Hlaing said the junta might not be able to hold polls nationwide as it struggled to crush opposition to its rule.