Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - If Myanmar's military government continues to execute prisoners, the Association of Southeast Asian N...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - If Myanmar's military government continues to execute prisoners, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would be compelled to reevaluate a peace agreement, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday.
The 10-nation group had been pressuring Myanmar to follow a five-point "consensus" for peace reached last year and had denounced the junta's most recent death of four democracy campaigners.
Currently serving as ASEAN's chair, Hun Sen remarked, "If additional inmates are executed, we will be compelled to rethink...our position vis-Ã -vis ASEAN's five-point consensus." He was addressing at the beginning of a meeting of the group's foreign ministers.
Hun Sen claimed that the political and security ramifications of Myanmar's predicament, which has turned into a humanitarian and economic disaster, have threatened ASEAN's unity.
Although the five-point consensus "had not advanced to everyone's hopes," the prime minister said that there had been some progress, especially in the provision of humanitarian help.
The junta's death of the activists, he continued, had "changed tremendously" the situation and made it appear to be even worse than it was prior to the peace pact.
Hun Sen remarked that despite his and others' pleas for the death judgments to be overturned, Cambodia and the other ASEAN members "are very unhappy and troubled" by the execution of those opposition individuals.
According to a senior member of the U.S. State Department, the country is "looking at what might be done to both sustain and raise the pressure on the government to release its hold on violence."
Last week, the military in Myanmar described the activists' death as "justice for the people," ignoring a barrage of worldwide criticism, including that of its near neighbours.
The activists were executed, according to the military, for helping "terror activities" by a civil resistance movement; this was the first execution in Myanmar in many years.
Myanmar's military authorities rejected a suggestion to send a non-junta representative in place of them, therefore the country won't be represented at the meeting this week.
Due to its slow implementation of the peace plan, ASEAN has prohibited the Myanmar junta from attending its summits since late last year.
Other ASEAN nations, which traditionally respect each other's internal issues, have become more outspoken in their condemnation of the generals.
Saifuddin Abdullah, the foreign minister of Malaysia, called the executions a crime against humanity and said they seemed to "mock" the ASEAN peace initiative.
Greg Poling, director of Southeast Asia Studies at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that on Myanmar, "they're all outraged over last week's executions and will be eager to illustrate that ASEAN isn't completely neutered."
However, an unnamed Asian diplomat questioned what additional actions ASEAN would be willing to take.
"The five-point consensus was helpful since Myanmar had endorsed it; however, without Myanmar present, are there any actions you can take other issuing declarations and continuing humanitarian aid? Sincerely, I have no idea "the diplomat said.
Since the coup last year, there has been anarchy in Myanmar, with the violence growing as a result of the army's suppression of largely peaceful rallies in towns and cities.
