Myanmar should be suspended from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) unless the military-run nation makes progress towards democratic reforms, regional lawmakers said yesterday.
"We should review or suspend Myanmar's membership and chairmanship in 2006 if there is no progress," said Malaysian lawmaker Zaid Ibrahim, who is also interim president of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar.
Zaid said the ruling military junta should urgently and unconditionally free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and restore her civil and democratic rights and release all other political prisoners.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The opposition headed by Aung San Suu Kyi won elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power.
Lawmakers from ASEAN members Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia attended the three-day meeting on Myanmar.
The lawmakers and activists, in a two-page statement at the end of the meeting, also called for the restoration of legal and political authority to the elected parliament through free and fair elections.
They also said ASEAN should deny Myanmar chairmanship of the regional grouping in 2006 if the military-run nation fails to show tangible proof that it is moving towards democracy.
"In the absence of substantial and meaningful democratic and constitutional reforms in Myanmar, such assumption of the chairmanship of ASEAN would be severely detrimental to the interest of ASEAN," the statement said.
Zaid said ASEAN leaders should raise the issue head on with Myanmar when they meet today in Vientiane.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS