Myanmar’s shadow government of ousted lawmakers has welcomed a call by Southeast Asian leaders for an end to “military violence” after their crisis talks in Jakarta with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
The general attended a high-level summit Saturday with leaders from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss Myanmar’s mounting crisis.
Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup, Myanmar has been in an uproar with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.
Security forces have deployed live ammunition to quell the uprising, killing more than 740 people in brutal crackdowns, according to local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The ASEAN meeting produced a consensus that there would be “an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar”, the bloc said Saturday.
It added that ASEAN will also have a special envoy to “facilitate mediation” between all parties, and this representative will be able to travel to Myanmar. But while they “heard calls for the release of all political prisoners”, a commitment to free them was not included in the consensus statement.
