"ASEAN has shown it merely pays lip service to human rights."
Four months after military dictators ousted the elected leaders of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has exhibited a complete lack of spine in dealing with a member state that routinely murders its own people in the name of maintaining order.
The death toll in Myanmar military junta’s crackdown against pro-democracy protesters has risen to 807, including 73 children, human rights groups said this month.
Pro-democracy protests have erupted in cities and towns across the Southeast Asian country since the Feb.1 military coup, and the military response has been swift and bloody.
In the face of the rising tide of murdered civilians, all the ASEAN could manage at a special summit on the Myanmar crisis was a five-point statement calling for an end to the killings—with no clear consequence of what failure to do so would mean to the country’s illegitimate rulers, or even an unambiguous call for the release of democratically elected officials who have been detained since the coup. At the same time, the junta’s leaders’ presence at the summit legitimized their rule.
As if this were not proof enough of ASEAN’s craven behavior, its members—including the Philippines—have proposed watering down a UN General Assembly draft resolution on Myanmar, including removing a call for an arms embargo on the country.
Reuters reports that Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam wrote to Liechtenstein, which has drafted the resolution, after a planned vote last week was postponed at the last minute.
In the letter dated May 19 and seen by Reuters on Friday, the Southeast Asian countries said the draft “cannot command the widest possible support in its current form, especially from all countries directly affected in the region” and that further negotiations are needed “to make the text acceptable, especially to the countries most directly affected and who are now engaged in efforts to resolve the situation.”
“It is also our firm conviction that if a General Assembly resolution on the situation in Myanmar is to be helpful to countries in ASEAN, then it needs to be adopted by consensus,” the countries wrote.
The draft resolution calls for “an immediate suspension of the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer of all weapons and munitions” to Myanmar. The Southeast Asian countries want that provision removed.
The ASEAN also wants to change a provision condemning the detention of elected government officials to one that merely expresses “deep concern.”
By acting as a lawyer for the brutal military regime that seized power in Myanmar, ASEAN has shown it merely pays lip service to human rights, and that it is no better than an apologist for dictators.