[dropcap font="" size="50px" background="" color="" circle="0" transparent="0"]A[/dropcap]year since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a “
five-point consensus” on the crisis in Myanmar, what has the regional bloc achieved?
In the year since then, Min Aung Hlaing “has defied each point,” says
Human Rights Watch. As of
April 22, 1,782 people have been killed by the military junta, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a human rights group. An estimated 10,290 people are under detention, and 59 people — including 2 children — have been sentenced to death. In short, the consensus “has abjectly failed to stop the violence in the country,” says
Amnesty International.
ASEAN adopted the five-point consensus on the crisis in Myanmar on April 24, 2021. The nine ASEAN leaders and Myanmar junta chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, agreed to five points: an immediate end to violence in the country; dialogue among all parties; the appointment of a special envoy; humanitarian assistance by ASEAN; and the special envoy’s visit to Myanmar to meet with all parties.
“Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing has totally failed to implement any of the Five Point Consensus,” rues the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights in an
open letter. “Given this failure, it is time for ASEAN to move on to sanctioning him for the continued suffering he is inflicting on the people of Myanmar and his blatant disregard for his regional partners.”
Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for research, urged ASEAN to immediately “call on the Myanmar military authorities to immediately stop all violence against peaceful protestors in line with the stalled Five-Point Consensus. It should do so now to prevent the Myanmar people from further suffering.”
Recently, the military regime in Myanmar added a new weapon to its arsenal of repressive tactics: citizenship, reports
Al Jazeera. Since March, it has stripped the citizenship of 33 critics — including diplomats, members of the National Unity Government set up in opposition to last year’s coup, and activists.