Asean needs to keep the pressure on Myanmar

IT IS good that Asean focused attention on the situation in Myanmar at its meeting last week. The bloc is right to push for talks among the parties to the conflict because it has become clear that the junta has no intention of adhering to the five-point peace plan its leaders had agreed to shortly after they seized power two years ago from a duly elected government.

Instead, a watchdog group that tracks arrests and killings in Myanmar has attested that some 2,940 civilians have been killed by the authorities since the takeover, and another 17,570 or so have been arrested – of whom over 13,760 remain in jail. Indeed, with considerable revenue from the sale of the country’s natural resources, much of which flow into the coffers of the junta, it is unlikely that any meaningful change will come soon. This is the unfortunate situation that Asean has to confront when dealing with General Min Aung Hlaing and his generals.

This is not to say that nothing is being done or can be done. Since the coup, thousands of young people have slipped away to remote rural areas to become guerrilla fighters. Operating in decentralised “People’s Defence Forces”, they have become a thorn in the sides of the army. The young operatives are reported as being good at ambushes and occasionally overrunning isolated army and police posts, getting supplies and training from some of the country’s ethnic minority rebels who have been fighting the army for decades for greater autonomy. Last week, the opponents of military rule urged people to stay in their homes or workplaces from 10am to 3pm as a show of defiance. Going by pictures on social media, Yangon, the country’s largest city, was shut down, with its streets deserted during those hours.