Myanmar Junta Turns Thai-Sponsored Talks Into Propaganda Tool

By The Irrawaddy 24 June 2023

As Myanmar slips additional into its post-coup disaster, the junta is desperately turning a casual dialogue on Myanmar hosted by Thailand into a possibility for propaganda by blatantly mendacity about each difficulty it has been battling.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister and International Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai final week invited international ministers from the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), together with the international minister of Myanmar’s junta, to organize the way in which to “absolutely reengage Myanmar on the leaders’ stage”.

The Myanmar regime’s prime leaders and its international minister have been excluded from high-level conferences of ASEAN since late 2021, following the junta’s failure to honor the bloc’s plan to revive peace within the nation, which has been in turmoil for the reason that navy staged a coup earlier that yr.

Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia shunned the talks held within the resort of Pattaya from June 18-19. Representatives from different ASEAN members together with Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar neighbors China and India joined the talks.

The present ASEAN chair, Indonesia, criticized the Thai authorities for organizing the talks, which have been additionally condemned by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Meeting, Myanmar’s shadow Nationwide Unity Authorities and a whole lot of the nation’s civil society organizations.

Junta international minister Than Swe made full use of his first alternative to talk on the regional assembly, saying appropriate details about Myanmar had been blocked, and solely false and lopsided information concerning the nation was unfold by biased media, in keeping with an announcement by the regime’s international ministry.

Than Swe, who served as Myanmar Ambassador to america beneath U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian authorities, stated on the talks that Myanmar navy is focusing its efforts on three of ASEAN’s five-point consensus: ending violence within the nation, beginning dialogue amongst all events, and delivering humanitarian help to Myanmar individuals.

The graduate of Protection Providers Academy sixteenth consumption additionally blamed the nation’s ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) for escalating the preventing.

“For greater than 33 years, successive governments have patiently engaged in dialogue as a substitute of preventing to construct everlasting peace in Myanmar, however EAOs are deliberately delaying it as a result of they will’t relinquish [their] profitable drug enterprise,” he stated on the talks.

He additionally took a possibility to supply another view of his regime’s indiscriminate air assaults focusing on civilians, saying officers of Myanmar’s navy have been educated to comply with guidelines of engagement outlined within the Vienna Conference, and to not use disproportionate pressure.

Then, he accused the shadow Nationwide Unity Authorities and its armed wing Individuals’s Protection Power of killing “over 5,800 unarmed civilians”. He was silent, nonetheless, concerning the junta’s killing of not less than 3,692 individuals, primarily for his or her anti-regime activism, documented by the watchdog Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Throughout the assembly in Pattaya, Than Swe didn’t utter a phrase about the truth that—greater than two years for the reason that coup—his regime nonetheless can not management the nation and is shedding management of extra land to PDFs.

He additionally uncared for to say that junta troops have suffered heavy casualties for the reason that early days of the preventing.

As a substitute, he boasted: The “Tatmadaw [Myanmar military], being systematically shaped, skilled and succesful, can simply crush atypical armed teams,” referring to the resistance forces.

Then Than Swe bored the assembly members by discussing the regime’s unscheduled election plans, repeating the declare of his superior, Min Aung Hlaing, that energy can be handed to the ballot’s profitable occasion.

A junta assertion on the assembly additional claimed that those that attended didn’t wish to intervene in Myanmar’s home politics, and hoped to advertise ties with the nation.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations particular rapporteur on scenario of human rights in Myanmar, known as the casual talks harmful, saying they might trigger division amongst ASEAN members and assist legitimize Myanmar’s junta.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha stated direct talks have been vital to guard his nation, explaining that Thailand has suffered greater than others within the area resulting from its prolonged land border with Myanmar.

Regardless of Bangkok’s protection of the assembly, questions have been raised about why Thailand made the rushed resolution to carry talks when a brand new authorities is anticipated to take over in August after progressive and populist events defeated their military-backed rivals within the nation’s Could 14 election.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a senior fellow at its Institute of Safety and Worldwide Research at Chulalongkorn College, wrote within the Bangkok Publish that the outgoing authorities’s resolution to carry the assembly raises questions on potential vested pursuits concerned within the obvious acceptance of Myanmar’s navy regime.

The assembly broken Thailand’s worldwide standing, undermined ASEAN’s central regional position and sabotaged Indonesia’s place as the present ASEAN chair, he stated, including:

“Thailand’s questionable coverage has made enemies with the overwhelming majority of Myanmar’s inhabitants, who’ve risen up towards the SAC (the regime), underpinned by a raging civil conflict by which the navy shouldn’t be profitable and is unable to consolidate its grip on energy.”

Even Cambodian International Minister Minister Prak Sokhonn ignored the non-public invitation from his Thai counterpart, dispatching some of the junior of his 14 secretaries of state, Kung Phoak, to the talks.

Talking after the talks in Pattaya, Cambodia’s authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen—who has by no means been accused of getting an affection for democracy—was dismissive of Myanmar.

“What are the newest achievements of Myanmar aside from the destruction of human lives and property?” he requested.