ASEAN envoy to visit Myanmar, demands full access to all political parties

Brunei Second Foreign Affairs Minister Erywan Yusof on August 7 said that he will visit Myanmar in his new role as special envoy for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Although Yusof, who was recently appointed as the association’s special envoy to Myanmar stopped short of revealing a date for the visit, he demanded full access to all political parties and a substantive discussion in the Southeast Asian Nation. Since February, Myanmar has been witnessing one of the bloodiest conflicts in its history with more than 960 people killed and over 7000 people detained by the junta, according to the latest tally by rights group AAPP. In addendum, it disclosed that more than 5512 Myanmar residents were currently detained or sentenced. 

Yusof’s remarks came a day after his appointment to the position by ASEAN. As Special envoy to Myanmar, Erywan is tasked with supervising humanitarian aid to the conflict-hit country, seeking the reestablishment of democracy and opening a dialogue between the military junta and its opponents, protests and civil disobedience campaigns have provoked an iron-fisted response. 

"The planned visit to Myanmar is in the pipeline, and what we need to do is make sure we're well-prepared when we go there, unlike the visit I had in June," Erywan, Brunei's Second Foreign Affairs Minister, told reporters in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the tiny sultanate on the island of Borneo.

Coup d'état

As Myanmar’s military has taken steps to undermine the country's democratic transition, including the arrest of the nation’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and few other civilian officials in Burma, several governments and human rights groups across the globe expressed concern and urged the military to immediately release all those who have been detained unlawfully. The Myanmar Army, on the other hand, has said that it carried out the detentions in response to fraud in last November’s general election that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide. According to Myanmar’s local media outlet, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is now in control of the country and a state of emergency has been imposed for one year. 

Image: AP