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The credibility of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) was at stake in the run-up to what was widely billed as an emergency summit on Myanmar over the weekend. The international community reacted with condemnation and sanctions to the military coup that displaced the country’s democratically elected government in February, but thus far nothing has even stalled the junta’s jailing of critics and campaign of repression and killing.
If Asean “centrality” – the notion that Asean should be the driving force or at least pivotal to any discussions or actions in the region – was to mean anything at all, the 10-member group Myanmar has been part of since 1997, had to take some kind of stand. With the coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, present at talks in Jakarta, would Asean pass the test? Or would it reveal itself to be truly “Nato” – no action, talk only – toothless in the face of a member state potentially descending into civil war or e
Ethnic minority Karen insurgents attack Myanmar army outpost near Thai border
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Myanmar junta postpones Suu Kyi court date again | World
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JAKARTA, April 256 (Reuters): A draft statement circulating the day before a South-East Asian leaders summit on the Myanmar crisis included the release of political prisoners as one of its consensus points, said three sources familiar with the document. But in the final statement at the end of Saturday s meeting, the language on freeing political prisoners had been unexpectedly watered down and did not contain a firm call for their release, two of the sources said. The absence of a strong position on this issue caused dismay among human rights activists and opponents of the coup, fuelling criticism by them that the meeting had achieved little in the way of reining in the country s military leaders. Activist monitors say 3,389 people have been detained in a crackdown on dissent by the military since the Feb. 1 coup, and nearly 750 people have been killed. The five-point consensus in the chairman s statement at the end of the Association of South-East Asian Nat