‘Systematic repression’ crushing Myanmar’s democracy hopes: UN chief

JAKARTA – Hopes of a return to democracy in junta-ruled Myanmar are being crushed by “systematic repression”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday at a summit in Indonesia with the United States, China and regional leaders.

Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since

a 2021 military coup

ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, unleashing a bloody crackdown on dissent.

“Brutal violence, worsening poverty and systematic repression are crushing hopes for a return to democracy,” Mr Guterres said before a meeting with Asean, of which Myanmar is a member.

“The situation is untenable,” he said.

The junta was not in attendance after being

barred from attending Asean summits

until it implements a five-point peace plan agreed two years ago.

Mr Guterres said the crisis has “further deteriorated” in the past year, and that the world was witnessing an “enormous tragedy”.

Before his meeting with Asean leaders, he repeated a call for Myanmar’s military authorities to free detained leaders and political prisoners and return to democratic rule.

Suu Kyi is among those

still in detention.

Mr Guterres also said the conditions

for the safe return of Rohingya refugees

who fled Myanmar in 2017, many of them to neighbouring Bangladesh, during a brutal military crackdown “are not yet in sight”.

Myanmar is

facing genocide accusations

at the UN’s top court following the mass exodus.

Leaders at the Asean summit on Tuesday called on Myanmar’s military rulers to “de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians”, a statement the junta

condemned as “one-sided”.

Myanmar has also been

replaced as Asean’s rotating chair

in 2026 by the Philippines.

An Indonesian official, who declined to be identified, said “they are still isolated. Asean does not trust them”.

Mr Guterres welcomed efforts to resolve the crisis under

the five-point peace plan,

but the junta has largely ignored it.

In a wide-ranging speech earlier at the summit, he called on world leaders to “turn up the heat” on actions to solve the global climate crisis.

It came a day after he said “climate breakdown has begun” after the EU monitoring body said 2023 was

likely to be the hottest year in human history.

AFP