Cambodia defends leader’s outreach to military junta

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s foreign minister on Saturday defended Prime Minister Hun Sen’s trip to Myanmar, the first by a foreign leader since the military takeover last year plunged the country into turmoil, though there was little evidence the mission yielded any immediate breakthrough.

Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told reporters that talks between Hun Sen and Myanmar’s

leader achieved “a very good, positive result with a progressive step forward” on the implementation of peace efforts agreed to by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc currently led by Cambodia.

Hun Sen’s meeting with Myanmar’s military chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi last February, triggered protests in Myanmar and criticism abroad. Opponents said it legitimized the military takeover and broke the generals’ near-total diplomatic isolation.

The military’s seizure of power has led to widespread conflict with civilians forming guerrilla groups and thousands of people driven from their homes by army offensives.

“If there is anyone who opposes progressing these negotiations and the agreements like this, it is only those people who love war, those people who do not want to see Myanmar return to stability and peace,” Prak Sokhonn, who is also ASEAN’s special envoy to

Myanmar, told reporters after returning home.

Friday’s joint statement on the talks, which described them as “frank and candid,” said Min Aung Hlaing was extending a cease-fire until the end of the year, and that both leaders would push for a meeting of stakeholders on delivering humanitarian aid.

The cease-fire offer is unlikely to be taken seriously by the military’s opponents. Such arrangements are routinely broken in Myanmar. The ceasefire also specifically referred only to long-standing ethic armed groups, not the new civilian guerrilla units that are currently doing most of the fighting.

The Myanmar military has a history of bloodshed, including a brutal campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Its seizure of power provoked nationwide nonviolent demonstrations, which security forces have quashed with deadly force.