Junta rejects Asean envoy's request to meet ousted MPs

YANGON • The Myanmar junta has rejected a regional special envoy's request to meet a group of ousted lawmakers - which it deems a terrorist group - amid attempts to break a year-long political stalemate since the coup.

Myanmar has been in chaos, its economy has been paralysed and more than 1,500 civilians have been killed in a military crackdown since the putsch in February last year, according to a local monitoring group.

Asean - a 10-country bloc - has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, which has triggered mass protests and a brutal crackdown on dissent, with 12,000 people arrested.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, the new Asean special envoy to Myanmar, told a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers last Thursday that he planned to visit the country next month and meet top junta officials.

With backing from Malaysia, he has also sought to meet members of the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), which is dominated by lawmakers from ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

Myanmar's Foreign Ministry issued a statement late on Sunday saying it would promote "constructive cooperation with Asean including the special envoy".

However, it could not agree to the special envoy engaging with "unlawful associations and terrorist groups" because they were "perpetrating violence and pursuing (a) total destructive path".

The ministry said the suggestion was "contrary to the principles of the Asean Charter" and "undermines Asean's counter-terrorism efforts".

"The ministry again urges the two members not to use Asean platforms to make such comments and encourages (them) to condemn the terrorist acts," the statement said.

In May last year, the junta declared the NUG "terrorists" and has jailed several high-ranking members of Ms Suu Kyi's party.

Most members of the NUG are in exile or in hiding and Mr Prak Sokhonn gave no details on a future meeting.

Myanmar's top diplomat was barred from last Thursday's meeting in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, over a lack of progress in defusing violence, although Mr Prak Sokhonn said junta representatives had been allowed to listen in on discussions.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE