Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in a meeting with ASEAN representatives on Tuesday in Putrajaya.MALAYSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / Reuters
The 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have launched diplomatic rounds to convince one of their members, Myanmar, to abandon the path of violence against protesters who daily protest against the coup of February 1.
Foreign ministers held a digital meeting on Tuesday in which they tried to persuade the representative of the Burmese Military Junta to enter into talks with the deposed civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
An attempt at mediation at the moment in vain, after a new day of violent police and military repression in several locations in the former Burma.
"It's not too late.
Singapore urges the Myanmar Army to desist from the use of lethal force and to ensure that there will be no more violence, ”said Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Foreign Minister, before the digital appointment.
"We urge the military authorities to negotiate a compromise to get out of the current situation (...) They have to speak up, and we need to help them do so," he added, referring to the Tatmadaw, as the Burmese Army is known, and the Government Aung San Suu Kyi civilian.
In addition to the Singapore minister, Myanmar's largest investor - so far against imposing sanctions against the neighboring country, unlike the United States or the United Kingdom, which have done so - his counterparts from Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.
The four countries requested this Tuesday the release of the political leaders detained by the Junta after the coup, including the Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi, to whom the uniformed men have charged three charges that could carry a sentence of at least six years jail.
The rest of the ASEAN countries - Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Brunei -, with more dictatorial regimes, have not publicly joined the petition for the release of Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who are part of of the members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) detained.
This party was the winner of the November elections, which the military described as fraudulent without presenting evidence, a pretext they argued for carrying out the coup.
The Board has assured that it plans to call elections, with no date announced and with no indication that the NLD will be able to participate.
Although ASEAN is made up of very disparate members, both by income level and by political regime - from more or less consolidated democracies such as Indonesia, Malaysia or the Philippines to the existing dictatorships in Vietnam, Laos and now Myanmar - the Burmese crisis is driving the block to seek common positions if you do not want to lose weight in the international arena.
The digital meeting on Tuesday follows a meeting last week in Bangkok between the foreign ministers of Thailand and Indonesia and the head of diplomacy imposed by the Board, Wunna Maung Lwin.
It was the first face-to-face between foreign representatives and a member of the Burmese military regime, a highly criticized approach during the demonstrations in Myanmar, where it is denounced that ASEAN legitimizes the Junta with its mediation attempts.
The countries of the group, prone to non-interventionism, face a tough challenge.
The Philippine Foreign Minister, Teodoro Locsin, has assured on Twitter that this "is not a carte blanche or tacit consent for what is done wrong."
The need to establish contact with the Board seems unavoidable.
"Even if it is only to try to use those communication channels in order to urge him to return to the democratic path," says Aaron Connelly, in a note published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“The coup is the most serious threat to ASEAN's role since its founding and expansion after the Cold War.
How you manage this crisis will have major implications for regional diplomacy in the years to come.
If it cannot agree on positions, Southeast Asia could lose significant influence just as the rivalry between China and the United States increases, "he adds.
Although ASEAN cannot afford to look the other way as one of its members plunges into the void, its ability to reverse the situation is in question.
In parallel to the group's talks, Myanmar experienced another violent day on Tuesday, after at least 18 people died during the protests on Sunday, the bloodiest day since the coup.
In Yangon, the country's largest city, police fired stun grenades and tear gas at civilians.
“If we are oppressed, there will be a revolution.
If they hit us, we will hit back, ”the protesters chanted, armed with shields of domestic manufacture and protected with helmets, according to the AFP agency.
Street protests and international pressure put pressure on the Burmese military junta
In the northwestern city of Kale, security forces opened live fire on protesters, and at least 20 were injured, according to various local media. In the northern Mandalay, the second largest city in the country, the military and police fired at houses at the end of the afternoon, according to the
Frontier Myanmar
media
. The Tatmadaw's violent past - which suppressed the protests of 1988 and 2007 with an iron fist - and its similar methods in the present do not augur an easy way out of the conflict. "It seems that the police and the military are fully aligned with the Board so far, and anything can happen," says Moe Thuzar, an analyst at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS-Yusof).