Former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that Myanmar’s military must take the first steps to find a way out of the country’s turmoil.
“With patient determination, I believe a way forward can be found out of the current crisis. This military must take the first steps,” he said in a statement issued after his two-day trip to Myanmar, which ended on Monday.
Mr Ban, the deputy chair of a group of independent global leaders called The Elders, was one of the most high-profile foreigners to visit the country since the Myanmar military staged a coup in February 2021.
The political crisis triggered by the coup has descended into civil war, with the military using its air force to bombard districts showing the most resistance to its regime. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced across the country.
Myanmar state media reported that Mr Ban had met Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, saying that talks between the two men were “positive”.
According to a statement issued by The Elders on Tuesday, Mr Ban also met former president Thein Sein, a retired general who helmed the country from 2011 to 2016.
Mr Ban called those meetings “exploratory”, saying the trip was aimed at urging the military to cease violence and encouraging dialogue among all parties, including the shadow National Unity Government that the junta has labelled as terrorists.
He said he stressed the urgency for Myanmar to make progress on Asean’s road map for peace and also reiterated international condemnation of the recent military air strike in the Sagaing region that killed more than 160 civilians.
He warned that holding elections under current conditions could lead to further violence and division. The results would also likely be rejected by the people of Myanmar and Asean, as well as the wider international community, he said.
While the junta is laying the groundwork for fresh elections to replace those held in 2020, which it has declared fraudulent, it has not committed to a date.
Asean has shut senior members of the Myanmar junta out of its high-level meetings, but some Asean states are engaging with the military regime as they would a normal government.
Mr Ban said on Tuesday: “Asean member states and the wider international community need to show unity and resolve in their commitment to peace and democracy in Myanmar.”
When contacted by The Straits Times, the UN said it had no hand in Mr Ban’s visit. The UN’s special envoy for Myanmar, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, has not travelled there since meeting the country’s generals in Naypyitaw in August 2022.
She had sought – but was denied – a meeting with ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Ms Suu Kyi is serving a 33-year jail sentence on charges widely thought to be trumped up.
Mr Ban had travelled to Naypyitaw on Sunday at the invitation of the Myanmar military.
During his time as UN secretary-general from 2007 to 2016, he had travelled to Myanmar several times. In 2009, he went to Myanmar to urge its ruling generals to release all political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi.
After the coup in 2021, Mr Ban had asked current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to engage directly with the Myanmar military, to avoid an escalation of violence.
