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Foreign minister Prak Sokhonn, in his capacity as the ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar, on June 30 delivered two million Covid-19 vaccine doses donated by China, through the bloc, to the crisis-hit country, stressing that humanitarian assistance should not be curtailed due to politics or race.
From the outset it was quite clear that Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing's peace call on 22 April was a piecemeal intervention to lift the tremendous military and political pressures on him and his coup-maker regime to drive a wedge between the ethnic-democratic forces, rather than to strive for genuine peace, reconciliation and political settlement.
Hundreds of junta troops have surrendered to the Arakan Army (AA) since the coup in February 2021, according to a 14 June press release by the United League of Arakan/ Arakan Army (ULA/AA).
An unofficial ceasefire has kept Rakhine State quiet compared to much of Myanmar following the 2021 coup. But friction is building between the military and ethnic Rakhine fighters. The parties should strike a formal deal to avert a return to war.
Veteran journalist Bertil Lintner talks to Irrawaddy editor-in-chief Aung Zaw about why Myanmar’s official peace process has been a non-starter from the outset.