BANGKOK (AP) – Regional diplomatic efforts to resolve the political crisis in Myanmar intensified on Wednesday, while protests continued in Yangon and other cities urging the country’s coup d’état to resign and return Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government to power.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited the Thai capital, Bangkok, and held triple conversations with his 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 their efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by the February 1 military coup in Myanmar.
At a virtual news conference after his return to Indonesia, Marsudi said he expressed his country’s concern over the situation in Myanmar.
“We ask all parties to exercise restraint and not to use violence … to avoid victims and bloodshed,” she said, emphasizing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and confidence building.
Marudi said he shared the same principles with a group of elected members of Myanmar’s parliament who were prevented by the military coup from taking their seats. Lawmakers are from the Suu Kyi National League for Democracy party, which won an overwhelming victory in last November’s elections, which would give him a second five-year term.
After the coup, the group, called the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee, named after the combined houses of Parliament, announced that it was meeting the body in an online session and called on the UN and foreign countries to treat it as the legitimate government of Myanmar. It received increasing support from the Myanmar protest movement, but little or no foreign endorsement. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role to play could pave the way for negotiations between the Myanmar ruling junta and its opponents.
Marsudi described his communications with the committee as “intensive”.
Indonesia and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are trying to promote some concessions by the Myanmar military that can ease tensions before there is more violence. The regional group, to which Thailand and Myanmar also belong, believes that dialogue with generals is a more effective method of obtaining concessions than methods of confrontation, such as sanctions, often defended by Western nations.
Opposition to the coup within Myanmar continued on Wednesday, with a tense stalemate in the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where police holding riot shields and rifles blocking the path of some 3,000 teachers and students.
After about two hours, during which protesters played protest songs and heard speeches condemning the coup, the crowd moved away.
On Saturday, police and soldiers shot and killed two people in Mandalay while interrupting a dockers’ strike. Earlier in the week, they had violently dispersed a demonstration in front of a state bank branch with batons and slingshots.
Also on Wednesday, about 150 people from a Christian group gathered in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, to call for the restoration of democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders detained 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 on Wednesday cited concerns about citizens of Myanmar being deprived of a democratically elected government and the continued violations of human rights by military personnel with a history of major abuse.
“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 and human rights laws,” the letter said.
In addition to a comprehensive arms embargo, he said that any measures by the Security Council should ensure that there are “robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms”.
There have been arms embargoes in Myanmar during periods of military rule, but not on a global basis. China and Russia, both members of the Security Council, are among the main arms suppliers to Myanmar and would almost certainly veto any UN effort to impose a coordinated arms embargo.
Indonesia’s efforts to work with other ASEAN members to resolve the Myanmar crisis had been unsuccessful.
Protesters demonstrated outside Indonesian embassies in Yangon and Bangkok on Tuesday in response to a report that Jakarta was proposing to other ASEAN members that they offer qualified support for the junta’s plan for a new election next year. . Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah denied the report.
There were also criticisms that Foreign Minister Marsudi intended to fly to Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw this week.
Marsudi acknowledged on Wednesday that he planned 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 postponement … has not lessened the intention to establish communication with all parties in Myanmar, again, with all parties in Myanmar, including the Myanmar military and the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee.”
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.