Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday called on Thailand to play a bigger role in fostering stability in Burma as diplomatic efforts to bring peace stalled.
Anwar Ibrahim took part in his first bilateral meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Thursday since he took office late last year.
Heavy repression in Burma
The Thai government has come under international criticism for maintaining ties with the Burmese junta and for downplaying the atrocities committed in Burma since the coup two years ago.
"
I think you are well placed, Prime Minister, to express many of our concerns
," said Anwar Ibrahim, addressing his Thai counterpart.
Burma has been in chaos since the 2021 putsch that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The subsequent crackdown on dissent sparked fighting in large parts of that country.
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Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since 2017 after a military crackdown that now faces genocide proceedings at the UN's highest court in The Hague.
The number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has been estimated at one million.
According to Anwar Ibrahim, the approximately 200,000 refugees hosted in Malaysia are a considerable burden for his country.
At the same time, ASEAN, the organization of Southeast Asian nations, is being criticized for its ineffectiveness with regard to Burma and the junta that rules it.
Little progress has been made on the “
Five Point Consensus
” (5FP) agreed with Burmese generals in April 2021, which called for an end to violence and dialogue between the military and rebels.