Suu Kyi will be looked after: Myanmar foreign minister
Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN was told by Myanmar’s foreign minister that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was a “sister” who was in good health and would be cared for, ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar said.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro is pushing for access to 81-year-old Suu Kyi, who has been detained since her elected government was overthrown in a 2021 military coup that plunged the country into conflict.
“What I remember from the Myanmar foreign minister’s statement about Aung San Suu Kyi is that she is in good health and the gist of how he said it was ‘she is a relative, she is a sister and therefore we will take care of her,'” Lazaro said at a press conference. he said.
Top diplomats from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in person with their Myanmar counterparts on Sunday for the first time since the coup to launch a peace initiative that has failed to stop a civil war that has killed an estimated 100,000 people.
Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison sentence, recently commuted by a third, on multiple charges that her allies say were trumped up to keep her out of politics.
Suu Kyi has denied wrongdoing and her exact whereabouts are unknown.
Myanmar’s leadership has been barred from attending high-level ASEAN meetings over their failure to implement the “five-point consensus” peace plan agreed with the bloc, which has made almost no progress.
Lazaro defended the decision to meet with Myanmar Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe and said the bloc was already seeing movement on humanitarian access.
“This can’t be done in one shot,” he said.
“It’s evolving, and I think all those interactions are very important.”
The ASEAN peace initiative was thrown into further doubt last week when Myanmar’s pro-military parliament passed a motion describing what it described as ASEAN interference and urging the new civilian-led, military-backed government to reject it.
Lazaro stood behind the plan, saying it was an engagement framework to open dialogue between warring factions and improve relief efforts.
“Whether they reject it or not, I support it and think ASEAN stands behind the five-point consensus,” he said.
Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said his counterparts had “clearly expressed our expectations” regarding progress to Myanmar’s Tin Maung Swe and called for access to her “so that we can verify claims” that Suu Kyi is in good health.
Sunday’s meeting discussed improving relations and “constructive cooperation to restore Myanmar’s full and equal participation in ASEAN,” Myanmar’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
A statement issued on Sunday by 20 political and ethnic minority groups in Myanmar expressed concern over ASEAN’s meeting with the foreign minister of a country that rejected the peace initiative and said the bloc had not adequately engaged with other stakeholders.
“It is therefore difficult to reconcile the expansion of high-level participation with a party that openly rejects ASEAN’s own framework,” he said.
