2023-09-07 09:12:39
Burma
“Systematic repression” undermines a return to democracy
UN Secretary-General António Guterres voiced his concerns from Jakarta, where he is attending the summit between the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
PostedSeptember 7, 2023, 11:12 AM
In 2021, the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown in a military coup.
“Systematic repression” undermines hopes of a return to democracy in Burma, led by a military junta, lamented Thursday in Jakarta, UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“Brutal violence, deepening poverty and systematic repression are shattering hopes for a return to democracy,” Guterres said at the opening of a summit between the United Nations and the Association of Nations. of Southeast Asia (ASEAN).
The situation is deteriorating
Burma has been in chaos since the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown in a February 2021 coup that ended a brief period of democracy. Since then, the Burmese military has carried out a bloody repression of all opposition and in particular of the supporters of the democratically elected leader. Guterres said the “untenable” situation in the country has “deteriorated further” over the past year.
On Tuesday, the leaders of ASEAN, meeting at the summit, had “strongly condemned” the violence against civilians in Burma by acknowledging that their peace plan to resolve the Burmese crisis was at an impasse. The leaders examined the application of the five-point peace plan, signed in 2021 by ASEAN with the junta but largely ignored by it. The head of Indonesian diplomacy Retno Marsudi had noted that there was “no significant progress” in the application of the peace plan. The leaders of the group have decided that the presidency of Asean will be withdrawn in 2026 from the junta and attributed to the Philippines.
Rohingya still in exile
Mr. Guterres also estimated Thursday that the conditions for a return of the Rohingyas, who fled en masse from Burma in 2017 to take refuge largely in neighboring Bangladesh, “are not in sight”.
In 2017, a campaign of repression led by the Burmese army notably forced some 750,000 Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, to flee predominantly Buddhist Burma to take refuge in Bangladesh, following abuses. This repression earned Burma a complaint for “acts of genocide” to the International Court of Justice.
The UN Secretary General also again called on States to “increase the pressure” in order to act in the face of the consequences of climate change. The day before, he had estimated that “the climate collapse has begun”, in a press release in response to the announcement of the world record for temperatures during the northern hemisphere summer.
(AFP)Show comments
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