May 9, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia urge the United States of America and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take the opportunity of their upcoming summit in Washington to increase their pressure on the Myanmar military junta, which staged a coup d’état in February last year and has thrown the country into a state of chaos ever since.
The leaders of ASEAN and the United States have declared that they intend to enhance their strategic partnership for the mutual benefit of the peoples of ASEAN and the United States. In that spirit, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) advises that they should take concrete steps to address the inherent threat to peace, economic development and human security in Southeast Asia posed by the crisis in Myanmar.
“Let this 45th anniversary of US-ASEAN relations be the occasion for the US and ASEAN governments to begin a new phase in their relations that truly benefits the people and puts human rights and the prevention of atrocities, in Myanmar and elsewhere, at the top of the agenda. They can no longer ignore the threat that the junta in Myanmar poses to the security of millions of people at the heart of Southeast Asia,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament from Malaysia, and APHR Chairperson.
The current crisis is wholly and solely caused by the junta, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, which overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February 2021. The Myanmar population has valiantly resisted the coup and, in order to impose its rule on the country, the military has committed widespread atrocities. According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, these may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Over the last year, Myanmar’s military has completely ignored the ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus on Myanmar, which was agreed on in April 2021 and was also supported by the US. Violence continues unabated, there is no dialogue between the junta and forces resisting military rule, and humanitarian aid is not reaching the Myanmar people.
The Special Summit provides the perfect opportunity for the allies to work on coordinated measures to make Min Aung Hlaing and his junta pay the price for their failure to abide by an agreement they claimed to accept.
“Humanity is our common thread across the Pacific and across the world. We must stand together in the face of these atrocities, Asians and Americans, as we share the same concern for the people of Myanmar. Now is the time for ASEAN and the US to make their historic alliance truly meaningful to people in desperate need,” said Mercy Barends, MP in Indonesia and an APHR Board Member.
We urge the US and ASEAN to adopt much stronger measures than those taken so far, including the suspension of Myanmar’s membership in the group, travel bans in the region for Min Aung Hlaing and his generals, and targeted sanctions against the leaders of the coup. The US has already imposed some sanctions since the coup, but it should reinforce them and include the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), a state conglomerate that has given 1.5 billion dollars in gas revenues to the junta.
We also urge the US and ASEAN governments to publicly meet with Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), which represents the democratically elected government and receives support from the majority of the Myanmar people.
Lastly, we call on the United States and ASEAN to work together to urgently deliver the life-saving humanitarian aid that the Myanmar people need. This aid should be channeled as much as possible through Myanmar’s community-based and civil society organizations, to effectively reach those that need it the most. The United States and ASEAN member states, especially Thailand, should also welcome the people of Myanmar who are fleeing persecution and violence, and give them asylum.
APHR stands ready to assist the US and ASEAN as they formulate and carry out their policies to address this crisis, and will remain vigilant to ensure that the steps taken by the US and ASEAN truly serve to support the Myanmar people’s aspirations for human rights, peace and democracy.
Click here to read this statement in Burmese.
Click here to read this statement in Bahasa Indonesian.
Click here to read this statement in Bahasa Malay.
Click here to read this statement in Thai.
Apr 24, 2022 | DFF, Open Letters
To: ASEAN Leaders
H.E. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, ASEAN Chair
H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei
H.E. Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia
H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister of Laos
H.E. Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, Prime Minister of Malaysia
H.E. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines
H.E. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore
H.E. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand
H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Vietnam
24 April 2022
Re: A Year since ASEAN’s Consensus on Myanmar – Time for consequences
Your Excellencies,
It has been a year since a Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar was reached at the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting between all ASEAN leaders and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to address the deteriorating political and humanitarian crisis triggered by his illegal coup d’état.
In this year, Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing has totally failed to implement any of the Five Point Consensus. 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.
Over this period, the Myanmar military has unleashed an all-out war over its people which according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights consists of “systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses” that may amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” These crimes include the arbitrary arrests of thousands of anti-junta activists and their family members; the routine torture of detainees, often with lethal consequences; the shooting of unarmed protesters, air strikes against civilians in Myanmar’s ethnic areas, the burning of whole villages, and extrajudicial killings.
In the face of these atrocities, ASEAN must now accept the fact, repeatedly demonstrated over the last months, that Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing, has no intention whatsoever of abiding by the Consensus unless he feels a strong pressure to do so.
In APHR’s original joint response we offered suggestions and support to ensure that the implementation of the Five Point Consensus makes a positive contribution to improve the situation on the ground. It is in the same spirit that we now urge you to take the following steps, in order to stop the Myanmar military’s atrocities, hold the perpetrators accountable, and initiate a real process towards peace and democratization.
First, ASEAN must thoroughly re-consider the role and appointment mechanism of the Special Envoy to Myanmar, in view of the poor record of the previous and current holder of this admittedly difficult position.
As it stands now, the Special Envoy does not represent ASEAN as such, but the group’s Chair, and thus changes every year, making it extremely difficult to maintain a coherent policy over time. Also, both of the Special Envoys appointed so far have been high officials in their respective ministries of foreign affairs, for whom their missions as special envoys was not their only, or even top, priority.
In order to make the position more effective, the Special Envoy should be exclusively dedicated to this mission, appointed on a long-term basis, and respond to ASEAN as a whole, rather than the rotating Chair position. ASEAN members should establish clear and comprehensive terms of reference that make explicit the tasks, mandate and authority entailed by the role of Special Envoy; as well as allocate the necessary resources to carry out the mission.
Second, when the Five-Point Consensus was agreed last year, APHR pointed out that the lack of a timeframe and enforcement mechanisms rendered it virtually toothless. Given that atrocities continued to be committed, unabated by the State Administration Council over the past year, it is high time for the junta to face real consequences for their criminal actions. Such consequences should include the suspension of Myanmar’s membership in ASEAN; travel bans for Min Aung Hlaing and the members of his State Administration Council (SAC) in the region; targeted sanctions against the leaders of the coup, those responsible for committing crimes against humanity and their economic interests.
Third, the Consensus calls for “a constructive dialogue among all parties” in order “to seek a peaceful solution” to the conflict unleashed by the military, and gives the ASEAN Special Envoy the mission to facilitate such a dialogue. One year later, neither of the Special Envoys have made any progress on this, having only met representatives of the military, and not a single representative of the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG), which represents the democratically elected government and receives support from the majority of the Myanmar people.
Therefore, we urge ASEAN to immediately and publicly meet with the NUG. Representatives of Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) must also be included in further dialogue to ensure that all voices are heard.
Finally, the coup has triggered an economic catastrophe on the 54 million inhabitants of Myanmar. More than half are now in poverty, while the country’s economy has shrunk by a staggering 18%, according to the World Bank. Provision and distribution of aid is now a matter of the utmost urgency and necessity.
ASEAN’s plan to deliver aid through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) has not only been insufficient but has also manifestly not reached out to the people in need. Instead, ASEAN should immediately begin to work with Myanmar’s local community-based and civil society organisations, as well as relevant international agencies, to effectively provide aid directly to the people in need. Given the scale of the aid required and the military’s history of blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid, collaboration with agencies experienced in running humanitarian operations in Myanmar will help ensure that ASEAN’s intervention abides by the “do no harm” principle.
We also urge neighboring countries, particularly ASEAN member, Thailand, to allow those fleeing persecution and violence to cross its borders, to seek asylum and receive humanitarian aid.
Lastly, we urge ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners and the wider international community to support ASEAN in ensuring it can take up the regional leadership role required to respond to a situation of this gravity, including by supporting the implementation of the above recommendations.
The question to ASEAN leaders now is: will you allow the military to continue committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and threaten the human security and economic development of the region for another year?
ASEAN’s credibility depends on its ability to act in accordance with the reality of the situation in Myanmar. The group cannot expect the military to abide by the terms of the Five-Point Consensus or to any international or humanitarian norm for that matter. It is imperative that the member states escalate measures to put real pressure on the military to stop it from brutalizing its own population and turning the country into a failed state, and do all they can to work towards the fulfillment of the Myanmar people’s aspirations for peace and democracy.
Sincerely,
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
CC: ASEAN Dialogue Partners
H.E. Will Nankervis, Ambassador of Australia to ASEAN
H.E. Diedrah Kelly, Ambassador of Canada to ASEAN
H.E. Deng Xijun, Ambassador of China to ASEAN
H.E. Igor Driesmans, Ambassador of the European Union to ASEAN
H.E. Shri Jayant N. Khobragade, Ambassador of India to ASEAN
H.E. Chiba Akira, Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN
H.E. Lim Sung-nam, Ambassador of Korea to ASEAN
H.E. Stuart Calman, Ambassador of New Zealand to ASEAN
H.E. Alexander Ivanov, Ambassador of Russia to ASEAN
H.E. Jon Lambe, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to ASEAN
H.E. Melissa A. Brown, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., U.S. Mission to ASEAN
Click here to read this open letter in Burmese.
Click here to read this open letter in Bahasa Indonesian.
Click here to read this open letter in Khmer.
Click here to read this open letter in Thai.
Mar 16, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Southeast Asian parliamentarians have called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take urgent and immediate steps to alleviate the suffering of Myanmar’s people in response to a report the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) submitted to the Human Rights Council this week. The report found that the military has engaged in “systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses”, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“We’re soon approaching one year since ASEAN agreed on the Five Point Consensus, a year in which the bloc’s disastrous failure to make progress on these points has effectively given the Myanmar military license to commit what this UN report has concluded may amount to the gravest crimes against humanity,” said Charles Santiago, chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and a Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP). “Security forces have shown a flagrant disregard for human life, using air raids and heavy weapons on populated areas, deliberately targeting civilians.”
“Meanwhile, the current ASEAN Chair, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, has attempted to engage with the criminal junta of Min Aung Hlaing unilaterally, undermining and delaying any meaningful steps ASEAN might have taken to save lives. ASEAN is politically and morally responsible for addressing this catastrophic situation in Myanmar, directly caused by the military junta,” Santiago said.
In addition to accusing the military’s State Administration Council (SAC) of manipulating the “legal framework to facilitate military rule”, it said the military’s seizure of power has left the country facing “violence on a massive scale”, including arbitrary detentions, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters, extrajudicial killings and ill-treatment and torture in custody.
The report was published on the same day that Hun Manith, the son of ASEAN Chair Hun Sen, welcomed a Myanmar military delegation to Phnom Penh for the 19th ASEAN Military Intelligence Meeting. APHR condemns this meeting as a potential legimitization of the junta, whose crimes against the people continue to mount.
It is little wonder that the report specifically named ASEAN for failing to achieve tangible results, APHR added. The other ASEAN members must push Cambodia, as the current chair, for concrete actions to address the crisis. The OHCHR report further supports the clear and urgent need for the regional bloc to respond, or risk increased damage to its already weakening credibility.
ASEAN, and specifically its Chair, must immediately discontinue inviting any other junta representatives to all ASEAN official meetings until there is an end to violence, all political prisoners are freed, and the will of the people for fully-fledged democracy has been heard, APHR said.
ASEAN must also begin a dialogue with the National Unity Government in accordance with its own consensus and, as the UN OHCHR report puts it, for the “international community (to) do everything within its power to support the people of Myanmar and turn this human rights catastrophe into an opportunity”.
“It is shocking that more than 14 milllion people in Myanmar, a fifth of the population, are in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and yet ASEAN has still only provided aid to support the COVID-19 response. The Five-Point Consensus plan to provide aid through the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Center was doomed to fail from the start, but it is not too late to act. ASEAN should now focus its collective political will to help people in need and support local non-state actors and networks that the people already trust to distribute aid,” Santiago said.
Mar 14, 2022 | DFF, Opinion Articles
By Kasit Piromya
A region that’s long been accustomed to natural disasters is now suffering from seismic activity of the diplomatic kind – one that threatens to break up the regional architecture of Southeast Asia.
The tectonic rift at the foundation of ASEAN continues to worsen, with the interests of the more democratic-leaning founding members on one hand and those of more recent authoritarian member states on the other. The question before us is: If ASEAN continues to pull itself apart and sinks into irrelevance, what will take its place?
Few may have noticed this shift in political ground. ASEAN has little relevance in the daily lives of most people in Southeast Asia, so despite the critical issues it deals with, it trudges along with many unaware of its weaknesses.
It takes a catastrophe, like the one that has exploded and smoldered in Myanmar for the past year, for it to become clear that if it is going to meaningfully address crucial issues that threaten regional security, economic stability and diplomatic relations, then ASEAN must shape itself accordingly.
With ASEAN front and center, despite all the diplomatic shuttling and rhetoric, the international community has failed to make any progress on the crisis; if anything, it’s made matters worse. The split within ASEAN, over the fundamental point of whether or not it was a matter of concern for the bloc, was evident within days of the attempted coup.
Cambodia and Thailand’s political leadership described it as an internal matter, while Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia expressed concern, calling for restraint and a peaceful resolution. The Philippines, the oldest democracy in the region, seemingly changed its view from one day to the next, eventually stating that it viewed the takeover with “grave” and “deep” concern. Vietnam, Brunei and Laos took their time before eventually issuing formal statements on the matter.
Over the past year, the inability of the ASEAN member states to jointly recognize the importance of the Myanmar crisis and agree on collective action has enabled the generals to unleash a devastating firestorm of violence and suffering on the people, one that has potentially cost upward of 10,000 lives.
ASEAN’s inaction has directly contributed to the region now hosting its own version of Syria’s protracted conflict. Other international actors are not blameless either, and the inability of the world to effectively respond has worsened an already appalling human rights and humanitarian tragedy.
Since Cambodia became the ASEAN chair in December, the split within the bloc has widened, notably when Prime Minister Hun Sen unilaterally broke the consensus on a five-point action plan to deal with the crisis, warmly shaking hands with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing on a visit to the Myanmar capital and issuing a joint statement with him.
The pair’s friendliness is perhaps “a natural fellowship of dictators”, as Thai academic Thitinan Pongsudirak put it in a recent discussion hosted by the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights. Within hours of Hun Sen leaving Myanmar, having announced a new joint plan apparently aimed at supplanting ASEAN consensus, the military reneged even on this agreement, reportedly launching air strikes in civilian areas.
The Myanmar people were outraged by the trip, a sentiment summarized by activist Khin Ohmar, who told Hun Sen bluntly, “you are not welcome”, saying that his trip risked lending legitimacy to the junta, making him “complicit in their crimes against humanity and war crimes against our people”.
The pushback against Hun Sen’s trip from the leaders of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines signaled their awareness that Cambodia was attempting to hijack the ASEAN agenda. A planned retreat of ASEAN’s foreign ministers hosted by Cambodia was called off in an implicit rebuke of Hun Sen’s rogue diplomacy.
It’s now time the other eight ASEAN leaders were explicit. If they allow Cambodia to continue toying with the ASEAN agenda, they will be colluding with Hun Sen, furthering the destruction of the bloc’s unity, integrity and credibility. It is clear that ASEAN’s response to this crisis is about more than Myanmar.
As Prof. Thitinan pointed out, the damage being done to ASEAN by Hun Sen’s approach “might be irreparable”. “It might be finished – ASEAN as we know it,” he said.
For now, Hun Sen appears to have taken stock of the pushback. After initially suggesting the junta be included in ASEAN meetings, he has apparently reverted to the bloc’s agreed position of only allowing military representatives to attend if progress is made on the Five-Point Consensus. We will soon find out what that really means at the rescheduled ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Siem Reap on Feb. 17.
The responsibility now rests with the prime ministers of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the presidents of the Philippines and Indonesia, the sultan of Brunei and the leaders of Vietnam and Laos. They must now unite to send a clear message to Hun Sen to adhere to the collective ASEAN framework and hold Min Aung Hlaing accountable to the consensus that he himself agreed to.
ASEAN’s focus must now shift to doing whatever it takes to alleviate the suffering of Myanmar’s people, who have clearly chosen the future they want: without military involvement in politics. Now, the choice for the rest of the world is whether to support or abandon them.
For Southeast Asia, the implications are profound and ASEAN leaders must ask themselves if they are willing to take the necessary actions to be a region where a people’s longing for peace, justice and freedom can be fulfilled.
As Myanmar’s Spring Revolution enters its second year, ASEAN’s failure to effectively respond risks eroding the very glue that holds the organization together. ASEAN’s future is at stake, and it’s time for tough words from Myanmar’s neighbors.
Another anniversary was marked this past week: It’s been 49 years since the United States and Vietnam signed the peace treaty to end a war that cast a huge shadow on the region and further afield, and contributed to the formation of ASEAN itself.
“One generation’s experience of brutal war is the next generation’s history,” as Jonathan Cohen, executive director of Conciliation Resources, put it.
This is the task before us all today: To ensure that, for future generations in Myanmar, this conflict is a distant memory that marks a decisive moment on the path towards justice, peace and democracy.
This article first appeared in the Jakarta Post
Jan 25, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – In response to the statement issued by the National Assembly of Cambodia regarding ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights’ (APHR) criticism of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar earlier this month, the group of lawmakers urges the Cambodian government, as this year’s Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to instead prioritize its efforts on finding the solutions needed to address the tragic crisis engulfing Myanmar.
Rather than focusing its response on the National Assembly’s personal attacks on Charles Santiago, APHR’s Chair, the organization asks that the Cambodian government redirect its attention on the more urgent humanitarian and human rights needs in Myanmar.
Far from being a success, the Prime Minister’s Myanmar visit shows that Hun Sen’s consensus-breaking decision not only threatened the legitimacy and solidarity of ASEAN, but may have also emboldened the junta to escalate their abuses on the Myanmar people, APHR said.
On the very day that Hun Sen left Myanmar on 8 January with the junta’s agreement to a ceasefire until the end of 2022 in hand, there were reports that junta forces began airstrikes in Loikaw, the capital of Karenni State, displacing around 40,000 civilians. More than half of the state’s 300,000 residents were reportedly displaced even before the air strikes began.
“ASEAN’s response to the attempted coup in Myanmar has been far from perfect, but the Five-Point Consensus was a step in the right direction, as was the decision to ban Min Aung Hlaing from last year’s summits for failing to adhere to the Consensus. Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar – and the ensuing joint statement he signed with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing – risked completely undermining that progress,” Santiago said.
APHR’s view that the Consensus should hold has been echoed by the Malaysian and Singaporean Prime Ministers. According to a statement issued by Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry on 25 January, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told Hun Sen that his country’s position to only invite a non-political representative from Myanmar to high-level ASEAN meetings “remained unchanged unless there was real progress and full implementation of the Five-Point Consensus”. Earlier this month, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also said the bloc should exclude junta leaders from meetings until progress has been made on the Consensus.
Prime Minister Hun Sen himself has now concurred, after initially suggesting that the junta be included in meetings. A post on his Facebook page on 25 January announced that he would invite Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN summit “if there was progress on the implementation of the five points agreed unanimously … if not, he must send a non-political representative to ASEAN meetings”.
“We’re pleased to see Prime Minister Hun Sen reverting back to the approach originally agreed to by the ASEAN Member States,” Santiago said. “Now what is needed is for the ASEAN Chair to work closely with the rest of its members to hold the junta leader accountable towards the Five-Point Consensus that he himself also agreed to. Amidst all of this, let’s not forget the people of Myanmar, who continue to be subjected to the terror and violence of this junta, and yet bravely continue to voice their rejection of the military.”
During the first 11 months of the junta’s attempted coup, there were 7,686 armed clashes and attacks on civilians across Myanmar, a 715% increase from the same period in 2020 (943). The intensity of the violence was comparable to Syria (7,742), and greater than in Afghanistan (6,481), Yemen (6,270), and Iraq (3,732). In the last four months of 2021, the conflict in Myanmar has escalated to outpace all of the other four countries.
Immediate international action is needed to address the junta’s widespread, systematic, and increasingly frequent and severe attacks on civilians in Myanmar, APHR said.
APHR calls on the Cambodian and other ASEAN member governments to prioritize finding the urgent solutions necessary to address the humanitarian demands in Myanmar, use all means at their disposal to end the atrocities being committed by the junta, recognize all legitimate stakeholders involved, including the National Unity Government (NUG), which includes elected representatives of the Myanmar people, urge the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all opposition MPs and individuals wrongfully imprisoned on baseless politically motivated allegations, and press for Myanmar to be tabled at the United Nations Security Council.
APHR is an independent, non-partisan group of current and former lawmakers, and is committed to the protection and advancement of human rights and democracy across Southeast Asia.
“We remain available for constructive dialogue and engagement with all relevant stakeholders, such as representatives of the Cambodian government, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, with the aim of contributing to finding solutions to the urgent crisis affecting the people of Myanmar,” Santiago said.
