“The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN should rethink its approach to engaging with Myanmar and demand specific actions and timeframes to end hostilities in the military-ruled country,” a United Nations expert said on Thursday.

ASEAN is due to send its special envoy, Cambodian FM Prak Sokhonn, to Myanmar at the end of June

Hundreds have been killed and thousands jailed in Myanmar.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar also “called on U.N. member states to engage formally or informally with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) to help the humanitarian situation.”

Tom Andrews is visiting Malaysia from June 17th  to 23rd, in an attempt to raise regional pressure on Myanmar’s military junta.

Regional bloc the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has faced growing criticism for its failure to curb abuse in Myanmar since the coup in February 2021.

Andrews said he ‘will continue to meet with people from Myanmar including those who have fled the country since the coup’ even ‘conditions continue to deteriorate in Myanmar, and the military junta continues its attempts to hide the truth’.

In June 14 report Andrews accused the junta of killing children and demanding the military leadership be held accountable for its ‘depravity’.

 

Aljazeera/Reuters