PHNOM PENH: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be forced to reconsider a peace plan agreed with Myanmar if the country’s military rulers conduct more executions of prisoners, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday.
The 10-nation bloc had been pushing for Myanmar to adhere to a five-point peace “consensus” it agreed to last year and has condemned the recent execution of four democracy activists by the junta.
“If more prisoners are executed, we will be forced to rethink...our role vis a vis ASEAN’s five-point consensus,” said Hun Sen, who is the current chair of ASEAN and was speaking at the start of a meeting of the group’s foreign ministers.
Hun Sen said that ASEAN’s unity had been challenged by the political and security implications of the crisis in Myanmar, which has spiralled into an economic and humanitarian crisis.
The prime minister said that while the five-point consensus had “not advanced to everyone’s wishes” there had been some progress including in providing humanitarian aid.
But he went on to say the current situation had “changed dramatically” and could be seen as even worse than before the peace agreement because of the junta’s execution of the activists.
Cambodia along with other ASEAN member states “are deeply disappointed and disturbed by the execution of those opposition activists, despite the appeals from me and others for the death sentences to be reconsidered,” said Hun Sen.
Myanmar’s military last week defended the execution of the activists as “justice for the people,” brushing off a deluge of international condemnation including by its closest neighbors.
The military said it had executed the activists for aiding “terror acts” by a civilian resistance movement, Myanmar’s first executions in decades.
Myanmar will not be represented at this week’s meeting, a spokesperson for the ASEAN chair said on Monday, after its military rulers declined a proposal to send a non-junta representative instead.
ASEAN has since late last year barred the Myanmar junta from joining its meetings due to its lack of progress in implementing the peace plan.
Some other members of ASEAN, which has a tradition of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, have been increasingly strident in their criticism of the generals.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has described the executions as a crime against humanity and appearing to make “a mockery” of the ASEAN peace plan. The head of Myanmar’s junta Min Aung Hlaing on Monday blamed instability related to the pandemic and internal violence for stalling efforts to implement the peace plan.
The junta also extended a state of emergency put in place after seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year.
Myanmar has been in chaos since then, with conflict spreading after the army crushed mostly peaceful protests in towns and cities.
ASEAN to rethink peace plan if Myanmar executes more prisoners
https://arab.news/v8mw9
ASEAN to rethink peace plan if Myanmar executes more prisoners
- The 10-nation bloc had been pushing for Myanmar to adhere to a five-point peace ‘consensus’
- ASEAN’s unity had been challenged by the political and security implications of the crisis in Myanmar
Left homeless by blaze, Muslims in southernmost Philippines observe Ramadan as month of trial
- Thousands lost their homes when parts of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi were burnt to ashes
- Many trying to fully observe the fasting month say they are grateful to be alive
Manila: As Annalexis Abdulla Dabbang was looking forward to observing the month of Ramadan with her family, just days before it began they lost everything when an enormous fire tore through whole neighborhoods of their city in the southernmost province of the Philippines.
Bongao is the capital of Tawi-Tawi, an island province, forming part of the country’s Muslim minority heartland in the Bangsamoro region. The city experienced its worst fire in years in early February, when flames swept through the coastal community, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.
“We were swimming for our lives. We had to swim to escape from the fire ... We swam in darkness, and (even) the sea was already hot because of the fire,” Dabbang, a 27-year-old teacher, told Arab News.
“Everything we owned was gone in just a few hours — our home, our memories, the things we worked hard for, everything turned to ashes.”
Trying to save their 2-year-old daughter and themselves, she and her husband left everything behind — as did hundreds of other families that together with them have since taken shelter at the Mindanao State University gymnasium — one of the evacuation centers.
Unable to secure a tent, Dabbang’s family has been sleeping on the bleachers, sharing a single mat as their bed. When Ramadan arrived a few days after they moved to the makeshift shelter, they welcomed it in a different, more solemn way. There is no family privacy for suhoor, no room or means to welcome guests for iftar.
“Ramadan feels different now. It’s painful but at the same time more real. When we lost our home, we began to understand what sacrifice really means. When you sleep in an evacuation center, you understand hunger, discomfort in a deeper way,” Dabbang said.
“We don’t prepare special dishes. We prepare our hearts.”
While she and thousands of others have lost everything they have ever owned, she has not lost her faith.
“Our dreams may have turned to ashes, but our prayers are still alive,” she said.
“This Ramadan my prayers are more emotional than ever. I pray for strength, not just for myself, but for my family and for every neighbor who also lost their family home. I pray for healing from the trauma of fire. I pray that Allah will replace what we lost with something better. I pray for the chance to rebuild not just our house, but our sense of security.”
Juraij Dayan Hussin, a volunteer helping the Bongao fire victims, observed that many of them were traumatized and the need to cleanse the heart and mind during Ramadan was what kept many of them going, because they are “thankful that even though they lost their property, they are still alive.”
But the religious observance related to the fasting month is not easy in a cramped shelter.
“It’s hard for Muslims to perform their prayers when they do not have their proper attire because they usually have specific clothes for prayer,” he said. “Sanitation in the area is also an issue ... when you fast and when you pray, cleanliness is essential.”
For Abdulkail Jani, who is staying at a basketball court with his brother and more than 70 other families, this Ramadan will be spent apart from their parents, whom they managed to move to relatives.
“The month of Ramadan this year is a month of trial ... there will be a huge change from how we observed Ramadan in the past, but we will adjust to it and try to comfort ourselves and our family. The most important thing is that we can perform the fasting,” he told Arab News.
“Despite our situation now, despite everything, as long as we’re alive, we will observe Ramadan. We’ll try to observe it well, without missing anything.”
