Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the Myanmar junta, will attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Indonesia on April 24, a Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said Saturday, before his first known overseas trip since he staged a coup d’état on February 1.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since Min Aung Hlaing ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, with security forces killing 728 people in an attempt to stamp out protests, according to an activist group.
In the latest violence, security forces shot two people in the ruby-red mining town of Mogok, one of several towns where crowds of people came to protest on Saturday, a resident told Reuters and the media reported.
Myanmar’s neighbors have tried to encourage talks between the rival parties to resolve the crisis, but the military has shown little willingness to engage with them or talk to the deposed government.
Several leaders of 10-member ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, had confirmed their presence at the meeting in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, including Min Aung Hlaing, Thai spokesman Tanee Sangrat said.
A spokesperson for the junta in Myanmar did not answer calls for comment.
Myanmar’s deposed government will likely disapprove of the junta chief’s participation in the rally.
Pro-democracy politicians, including impeached MPs, announced on Friday the formation of a government of national unity (NUG), including Suu Kyi and leaders of the protests against the coup and ethnic minorities.
The NGG says it is the legitimate political authority. It has called for international recognition and asked ASEAN to decline Min Aung Hlaing’s participation in the meeting and instead invite it.
A NGG representative was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier on Saturday, the junta released 23,184 inmates from prisons across the country under a New Year’s amnesty, a Prisons Department spokesman said, although it was thought there were few, if any, democracy activists who had been arrested since the coup.
Saturday is the first day of Myanmar’s traditional New Year and the last day of a five-day holiday usually celebrated with visits to Buddhist temples and noisy water throwing and parties in the streets.
Pro-democracy activists called for the festivities to be canceled this year and instead for people to focus on a campaign to restore democracy.
Suu Kyi is one of 3,141 people arrested in connection with the coup, according to a count by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
“These detainees are usually from before February 1, but there are also some who were imprisoned afterwards,” Kyaw Tun Oo, spokesman for the prison system, told Reuters by phone.
When asked if any of the freedmen might have been detained in connection with the protests against military rule, he said he had no details about the amnesty.
ROUGH ROAD
As the military freed the thousands of prisoners, it also searched 832 people on warrant in connection with the protests, the AAPP said.
Among them, 200 people, including several internet celebrities, actors and singers who have spoken out against the coup, have been sought on charges of encouraging dissent in the armed forces, who can face three years in prison.
Two of them, the married couple of film director Christina Kyi and actor Zenn Kyi, were detained at the airport in the capital of Yangon on Saturday when they tried to leave on a flight to Bangkok, news site Irrawaddy reported.
NGG vice president Duwa Lashi La, an ethnic Kachin attorney, said in a New Year’s message that the road to replacing military rule with democracy would be difficult.
“We promise to continue to work with all ethnic peoples to overthrow the military dictatorship and create a new federal democracy,” he said.
The coup also led to clashes between the military and insurgent ethnic minority groups in the north and east.
On Saturday, fighters of the Kachin Independence Army attacked an air base in the north with missiles, one of which hit a nearby village hall and injured one person, Mizzima news agency reported.
Suu Kyi is facing several charges, including violating an official nondisclosure agreement that could put her in prison for 14 years. Her lawyers dismiss the charges.
The military has defended its coup on allegations of fraud in an election won by Suu Kyi’s party in November, although the election committee rejected the objections.
The junta has said it will hold another election in two years and hand over power to the winner.
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