BANGKOK (AP) – Regional diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis intensified on Wednesday as protests continued in Yangon and other cities calling on the country’s coup plotters to step down and return the elected government to power. Aung San Suu Kyi.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited Bangkok, the Thai capital, and held three-way talks with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and Myanmar’s new foreign minister, the army colonel. retired Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled to Thailand. The meeting was part of their efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by the February 1 military coup in Myanmar.
At a virtual press conference after his return to Indonesia, Marsudi said he expressed his country’s concern over the situation in Myanmar.
“We called on all parties to exercise restraint and not use violence … to prevent casualties and bloodshed,” he said, stressing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and building trust.
Marudi said he had passed on the same principles to a group of elected members of the Myanmar Parliament to whom the military coup was prohibited from taking their seats. Lawmakers belong to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which won a major defeat in last November’s election that would have given it a second five-year term.
Following the coup, the group, called the committee representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the name of the combined houses of Parliament, announced that it would convene the body in an online session and appealed to the UN and countries foreigners to treat it as the legitimate government of Myanmar. It has received growing support from the Myanmar protest movement, but little or no foreign endorsement. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role to play could pave the way for negotiations between Myanmar’s governing board and its opponents.
Marsudi described his communications with the committee as “intensive.”
Indonesia and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are trying to promote some concessions by the Myanmar army that could ease tensions before there is more violence. The regional grouping, which also includes Thailand and Myanmar, believes that dialogue with generals is a more effective method of securing concessions than more confrontational methods, such as sanctions, often advocated by Western nations.
Opposition to the coup in Myanmar continued on Wednesday, with a tense clash in the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where police with riot shields and cradled rifles blocked the passage of some 3,000 teachers and students. .
After about two hours, during which protesters played protest songs and heard speeches condemning the coup, the crowd walked away.
On Saturday, police and soldiers fatally shot two people in Mandalay while breaking a strike of dock workers. Earlier in the week they had violently dispersed a rally in front of a state bank branch with batons and handles.
Also on Wednesday, about 150 people from a Christian group gathered in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, to demand the restoration of democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders since the coup. state.
International pressure against the takeover also continues, with more than 130 civil society groups sending an open letter to the UN Security Council calling for a global arms embargo on Myanmar.
The letter released on Wednesday cited concerns about the deprivation of Myanmar citizens of a democratically elected government and ongoing human rights violations by a military man with a history of serious abuses.
“Any sale or transfer of military equipment related to Myanmar could provide the means to further repress the people of Myanmar in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law,” the letter said.
In addition to a broad arms embargo, he said any Security Council measures should ensure there are “robust surveillance and enforcement mechanisms.”
There have been past arms embargoes in Myanmar during periods of military rule, but not globally. China and Russia, both members of the Security Council, are among the top arms suppliers in Myanmar and would certainly veto any UN effort to impose a coordinated arms embargo.
Indonesia’s efforts to work with other ASEAN members to resolve the Myanmar crisis had previously stumbled.
Protesters demonstrated on Tuesday in front of Indonesian embassies in Yangon and Bangkok in response to a report that Jakarta proposed to ASEAN members to offer qualified support for the Board’s plan for new elections next year. . Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah denied the report.
It was also criticized that Foreign Minister Marsudi intended to fly to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, this week.
Marsudi acknowledged on Wednesday that he planned to visit Naypitaw after Bangkok to directly convey Indonesia’s position and the hopes of the international community.
“However, the planned visit had to be postponed,” he said. “This postponement … did not dispel the intention to establish communication with all parts of Myanmar, once again, with all parts of Myanmar, including the Myanmar military and the Committee representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.”
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.