Myanmar’s foreign minister has assured ASEAN that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and will be properly cared for, describing her as “a sister”, the regional bloc’s special envoy said on Sunday.
Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, who is serving as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar, has repeatedly sought access to the 81-year-old Nobel laureate.
Suu Kyi has remained in detention since Myanmar’s military overthrew her elected government in February 2021, triggering a conflict that has since spread across much of the country.
“My recollection of the statement of the Myanmar foreign minister on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she’s in good health and that the premise of how he said this is that ‘she is a relative, she’s a sister and therefore we will take care of her’,” Lazaro told a press conference.
Foreign ministers from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met Myanmar’s foreign minister in person on Sunday for the first time since the coup.
The talks were aimed at reviving a stalled regional peace initiative that has so far failed to bring an end to a civil war estimated to have killed around 100,000 people.
Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison sentence, which was recently reduced by one-third, following convictions on numerous criminal charges.
Her supporters say the cases were politically motivated and designed to remove her from public life. She has denied any wrongdoing, while her precise location remains unknown.
Engagement With Myanmar Defended
Myanmar’s military leadership has been excluded from high-level ASEAN meetings because of its failure to implement the bloc’s “five-point consensus”, a peace framework agreed shortly after the coup.
Lazaro defended ASEAN’s decision to hold talks with Myanmar Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe, saying the engagement had already produced some progress on humanitarian access.
“It can’t be done in one stroke,” she said. “It’s evolving and I think all of these engagements are very important.”
Fresh doubts were raised over the ASEAN initiative last week after Myanmar’s pro-military parliament approved a motion describing the plan as interference in the country’s internal affairs. The motion also urged the new civilian-led but military-backed government to reject the framework.
Lazaro nevertheless reaffirmed her support for the initiative, describing it as a basis for opening dialogue between opposing groups and improving humanitarian relief efforts.
“They reject it or not, I stand pat and I think ASEAN stands behind the five-point consensus,” she said.
Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said ASEAN ministers had “clearly spelled out our expectations” to Tin Maung Swe and had also requested access to Suu Kyi “so that we can be able to verify the claims” that she was in good health.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Sunday’s meeting focused on strengthening relations and promoting “constructive cooperation for the restoration of Myanmar’s full and equal participation in ASEAN.”
However, a coalition of 20 political and ethnic minority groups in Myanmar expressed concern over ASEAN’s decision to engage at a high level with a government that has rejected the bloc’s peace initiative. The groups also accused ASEAN of failing to consult sufficiently with other parties to the conflict.
“It is therefore difficult to reconcile the expansion of high-level engagement with a party that has openly repudiated ASEAN’s own framework,” the statement said.
