Myanmar: Singapore to work with Indonesia, ASEAN, UN to push for peace plan

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his country would work with Indonesia and international partners to help push the Myanmar military to implement the peace plan drafted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The comments come amidst frustration by the ASEAN bloc over the lack of progress by the junta, which seized power in February 2021.

Lee said on Thursday Singapore will work with current ASEAN chair Indonesia and the rest of the bloc’s member countries, along with international partners like the United Nations, to push for the implementation of the peace plan. Lee’s comments followed his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Shortly after Myanmar’s generals seized power in a coup in February 2021, ASEAN drafted a five-point peace plan that included an end to the violence and a return to democratic norms. The Myanmar military’s coup leader agreed to the peace plan, but there has been little progress on its implementation in the country.

“Singapore will continue working with Indonesia and ASEAN members, plus ASSEAN’s partners like the UN to push for the full implementation of the five-point consensus,” said Lee.

Thousands of those who opposed the coup have been detained, and hundreds were killed by the Myanmar military for opposing military rule. The military has since been facing armed resistance groups on multiple fronts. Ousted politicians and pro-democracy groups have since formed the shadow National Unity Government, which the junta has outlawed as “terrorists.”

On Friday, a post-mortem report released last week found that around 22 people, including three Buddhist monks, were shot dead at close range in central Myanmar. Opponents of the junta said the incident was a massacre of civilians carried out by the military. The spokesperson for the junta, Zaw Min Tun, said the military was involved in clashes with rebel fighters in the Pintaung region of the southern Shan area but did not attack any civilians.

However, a spokesperson for the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force said its fighter entered Nan Neint on Sunday only to find dead bodies scattered at a Buddhist monastery. Video footage and photos provided by the KNDF and another rebel group, the Karenni Revolution Union, showed bullet wounds to the torso and heads of the bodies and bullet holes in the monastery walls.