Rejecting International Pressure, Military Regime Remains Banning ASEAN Special Envoy From Meeting Aung San Suu Kyi

ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Wikimedia Commons/Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

JAKARTA - The Myanmar military regime defended its decision to deny access to the ASEAN special envoy to meet detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday.

In addition, the military regime has also resisted increasing international pressure to comply with the regional peace plan agreed at a meeting in April.

Senior Deputy General Soe Win, the second-in-command of the junta that seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in the February 1 coup, said allowing foreigners access to someone charged with a crime was against domestic law.

"I believe, no country will allow anyone to do anything outside the existing law like this," he said in a speech published in state media, citing Reuters on November 3.

His remarks followed a virtual summit of Asian leaders hosted by ASEAN in which Myanmar was not present, in protest at the exclusion of military regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for not honoring the peace accord.

The situation which Myanmar views as a violation of the ASEAN consensus code and the principle of non-intervention refused to send a junior representative to the meeting.

Soe Win dismissed allegations of non-compliance and said April's agreement with ASEAN hinged on it in light of Myanmar's "current internal affairs", with envoys' access to the country "based on internal stability".

Soe Win's rebuttal was conveyed in a virtual meeting of ASEAN auditors, Tuesday. He said that Myanmar's demands were made at the Asian Summit last week because of suspicions of violating the image of ASEAN solidarity.

To note, Myanmar has been crippled by protests, strikes, and violence since the coup, with the military regime struggling to rule and facing armed resistance from ethnic minority militias and rebels allied with a shadow government it calls "terrorists".

More than 1.200 civilians have been killed by security forces, according to a local monitoring group cited by the United Nations, which the military junta accuses of bias.

Regarding the Myanmar Coup. VOI editorial team continues to monitor the political situation in one of the ASEAN member countries. Civilian casualties continued to fall. Readers can follow news about the Myanmar military coup by clicking this link.