AS ASEAN foreign ministers meet in Jakarta, the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar calls upon the grouping to take strong and decisive action to address the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and the displacement of millions of individuals as a result of the violence.
The Myanmar crisis is expected to deteriorate further in 2023, with the United Nations estimating that 17.3 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Myanmar’s conflict caused 1.5 million people to flee their homes as of December 26, 2022, with 1.2 million being newly displaced inside the country since the February 2021 coup, including over 250,000 children. Schools and hospitals continue to be targeted, and children are further endangered by being used as human shields.
Most of the internally displaced are in the northwest and southeast regions. The conflict hampers efforts to find durable solutions for the displaced and renders any effort for safe, dignified, and voluntary repatriation of Myanmar refugees, including Rohingya, impossible.
We call on Asean to assert stronger pressure on the Myanmar military to immediately cease violence against the Myanmar people and to allow the immediate and unhindered provision of humanitarian aid and protection without discrimination to those most affected by the conflict, and to include the Rohingya human rights crisis and protracted displacement as a key area of focus within the framework of the Asean Five Point Consensus.
We also call on Asean members states hosting refugees from Myanmar to halt all deportations of asylum seekers and refugees from Myanmar immediately, whether or not they already possess UNHCR documents.
We commend the Asean chair’s announcement of the opening of an office of the Asean special envoy on Myanmar, but we also emphasise that this must be just the first step in a series of strong and decisive actions to address the crisis, and that Asean must in no way legitimise the Myanmar military. Asean must design clear benchmarks for the implementation of the Five Point Consensus and engage all Myanmar stakeholders to bring an end to the violence and facilitate the immediate protection of those most affected, including women, children, and displaced persons.
We also urge Asean member states to adopt a unified stance against any proposals for new elections by the state administration council, which would be against the will of the majority of Myanmar’s population and will only push the country into further violence.
The warnings issued by the United Nations secretary-general and the UN special envoy on Myanmar must be taken seriously, and Asean must take all necessary measures to prevent the situation from escalating and causing even greater harm to the people of Myanmar and further displacement in the region. Asean cannot afford to fail the people of Myanmar.
Already, the inability to pressure the Myanmar regime to address this humanitarian tragedy reflects badly on Asean and the world. – The Vibes, February 3, 2023
Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar chairs the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar
