At Asean Summit, leaders must tread carefully to deal with worsening Myanmar situation

SOUTH-EAST Asia’s leaders are gathering in Phnom Penh later this week for their annual summit, and while there are plenty of pressing issues on the table, it is the ongoing political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar that will undoubtedly dominate much of the proceedings.

As things stand, it is unlikely that there will be a significant breakthrough in the discussions given the sensitivity of the matter, and the fact that Myanmar’s rulers have been banned from Asean’s high-level meetings since last year’s military coup that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Only “non-political” representatives from the strife-torn country have been invited, but even so the junta has not allowed these people from attending.

Myanmar’s military government warned recently that any pressure from its fellow Asean member states to even attempt to put a time frame on a peace plan would result in “negative implications”.