BANGKOK (AP) – Regional diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis intensified on Wednesday, as protests in Yangon and other cities continued, calling on the country’s coup militants to resign and the elected government of Aung San Suu. Kyi to power.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited Thailand’s capital Bangkok and held talks with her Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and Myanmar’s new Foreign Minister, retired Army Colonel Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled to Thailand. The meeting was part of its efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by Myanmar’s military coup on February 1.
In a virtual press conference after her return to Indonesia, Marsudi said she expressed her country’s concerns about the situation in Myanmar.
“We asked all sides to exercise restraint and not use force … to avoid casualties and bloodshed,” she said, stressing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and confidence-building.
Marudi said she conveyed the same principles to a group of elected members of Myanmar’s parliament who had been barred from taking their seats by the military coup. The lawmakers are from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory last November, which would have earned it a second five-year term.
After the coup, the group, called the Committee Representative of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the name of the Parliament’s combined houses, announced that it would convene the body in an online session and called on the UN and other countries to approve it. as the legitimate government of Myanmar. It is gaining increasing support from Myanmar’s protest movement, but little or no foreign endorsement. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role to play could open a way for negotiations between Myanmar’s ruling junta and its opponents.
Marsudi described her communication with the committee as “intensive”.
Indonesia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are trying to promote some concessions from Myanmar’s military that could ease tensions before more violence ensues. The regional group, which also includes Thailand and Myanmar, believes that a dialogue with the generals is a more effective method of making concessions than more confrontational methods, such as sanctions, often advocated by Western countries.
Opposition to the coup in Myanmar continued on Wednesday, with a tense standoff in the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, where police blocked the way of some 3,000 teachers and students with riot shields and guns.
After about two hours, during which protesters played protest songs and listened to speeches condemning the coup, the crowd departed.
On Saturday, police and soldiers shot two people in Mandalay while interrupting a dockers’ strike. Earlier in the week, they had forcibly dispersed a rally in front of a branch of a state bank with batons and catapults.
Also on Wednesday, about 150 people from a Christian group gathered in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, to call for the restoration of democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other civic leaders that have taken place since the coup.
International pressure against the takeover also continues, with more than 130 civil society groups issuing an open letter to the UN Security Council calling for a global arms embargo on Myanmar.
The letter released Wednesday raised concerns that the citizens of Myanmar would be denied a democratically elected government and that continued human rights abuses would be deprived of an army with a history of major violations.
“Any sale or transfer of military equipment to Myanmar could provide the means to further repress the people of Myanmar in violation of international humanitarian law and human rights,” the letter said.
In addition to a sweeping arms embargo, it said all Security Council measures should ensure that there are “robust control and enforcement mechanisms.”
There have been arms embargoes against Myanmar during periods of military rule in the past, but not on a global basis. China and Russia, both members of the Security Council, are among Myanmar’s top arms suppliers and would almost certainly veto any attempt by the UN to impose a coordinated arms embargo.
Indonesia’s efforts to work with other members of ASEAN to resolve the crisis in Myanmar had previously been doomed.
Protesters rallied outside Indonesia’s embassies in Yangon and Bangkok on Tuesday in response to a news report suggesting Jakarta to other ASEAN members to provide qualified support for the junta’s plan for a new election next year. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah denied the report.
There was also criticism that Foreign Minister Marsudi planned to fly to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, this week.
Marsudi acknowledged on Wednesday that she intended 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, she said. “This delay … was without prejudice to the intention to establish communication with all parties in Myanmar, again with all parties in Myanmar, including the Myanmar military and the Committee representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.”
Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.