The junta released about 23,000 prisoners last April, with some rights groups at the time fearing the move was to free up space for opponents of the military. The junta marked Union Day with a show of force in the military-built capital Naypyidaw, known for its broad and often empty thoroughfares. Hundreds of troops paraded alongside civil servants waving national flags in unison and troupes performed choreographed dances.
It has been a month since the ASEAN Leaders met with Myanmar junta Leader Min Aung Hlaing on 24 April in Jakarta to discuss the situation in Myanmar. The meeting itself and the outcome of it – the Five-Point Consensus – has been applauded by some as a rare win for ASEAN, given its limitations in addressing crises, and derided by others as legitimising the coup and strengthening the hand of the military.
Any optimism on the “ASEAN way” forward, however, is fast evaporating with the absence of a clear implementation plan for the five-point-consensus, the delayed announcement and specific objectives of the ASEAN envoy, the continued violence against civilians by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military forces), and the displacement of thousands of people in the border states. Critics of ASEAN have called out the regional grouping for not condemning the violence of the Tatmadaw and allowing the State Administrative Council (SAC) to buy time to consolidate power.
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