BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) A U.S. State Department official called on Wednesday for the immediate release of two American journalists who were arrested by Myanmar’s military junta. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the arrests of Danial Fenster and Nathan Maung were of deep concern, and urged that they be freed and allowed to […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) â Indonesiaâs foreign minister on Wednesday urged the Association of Southeast Asia Nations to immediately appoint a special envoy on Myanmar following a coup, and reiterated a call for the safety of civilians as the ruling junta cracks down on opposition.
After holding talks with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell in the capital, Jakarta, Retno Marsudi said that Indonesia is continuing to communicate with the chair and other ASEAN member countries following their demand for an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar.
ASEAN leaders met in April in Jakarta with Myanmar’s coup leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. They also demanded that dialogue between parties in Myanmar should immediately start, with the help of the ASEAN envoy.
Sherman is making her first overseas trip since taking office, with visits to Belgium, Turkey, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand.
Fenster, 37, the managing editor of the news and business magazine Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon International Airport on June 24 as he was preparing to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to the Detroit area to see his family.
Maung and Myanmar national Hanthar Nyein, co-founders of the Myanmar news website Kamayut Media, were arrested on March 9, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, citing accounts in Myanmar media. The group said it had reports that Maung, the website’s editor-in-chief, and Hanthar, a news producer, were physically mistreated in their first two weeks of detention at an interrogation center in Insein township.