Myanmar’s National Unity Government has issued a statement as the ASEAN foreign ministers sat down for talks in Phnom Penh to discuss the Myanmar crisis.
In a video address, released on 17 February, Zin Mar Aung, Union Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs-NUG, made the following statement to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat:
The National Unity Government welcomes constructive ways to a path of peace and federal democracy. We recognize the extreme challenges that ASEAN is facing in navigating the situation in Myanmar. But we also appreciate its unprecedented demonstrations of the political majority by ensuring the primacy of the Five-Point Consensus as a framework for engaging in Myanmar.
Cambodia had set out significant core themes this year ASEAN addressing challenges together which underscores ASEAN’s togetherness as one community and a common world in our collective endeavour to address and overcome challenges facing our region.
In this spirit, I would like to address my fellow ASEAN foreign ministers on this moment and occasion. It has been a year since the military junta robbed us of our rights and our path to democratic transition, dragged the country into instability and inflicted a humanitarian catastrophe. While the rest of the world is dealing with the lethal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the junta indulged itself in unspeakable crimes against the people. Millions of people are fleeing to avoid the junta brutality, communities are being torched to ashes and indiscriminately bombed. Thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and murdered. The peoples’ fundamental rights are continuously being violated and freedom of expression repressed. The instability induced by the junta has led to an unprecedented economic crisis. Our neighbours have been bearing the coup, cross-border humanitarian and economic impact.
All these have been openly broadcast to the whole world. Min Aung Hlaing and the State Administration Council (has provided) nothing for the past 12 months. He has repeatedly played ASEAN and undermined its credibility as a regional bloc. He agreed to the Five-Point Consensus but continued to block its implementation. He signed in to the joint statement with Prime Minister Hun Sen in January, yet continued indiscriminate bombing, prior, during the visit, and until now.
The National Unity Government has consistently reiterated its commitment to engage and cooperate with the ASEAN in finding solutions. While the coup has brought insurmountable suffering to our people, the last 12 months have provided us the opportunity to reach a positive turning point in our history. People across ethnic and religious backgrounds have united in changing the military lies and corrupted military system that held us back from becoming a democratic, developed peaceful and productive country in the region.
In essence, we have already begun our transition to a people-centred federal democracy. The CRPH was formed as the legislative pilot of the Union. Its legitimacy is drawn from the fact that its members are parliamentarians, duly elected by the people during the 2020 national election. The process between democracy and ethnic movements began after the coup laid down qualitative strategies on the way forward. This platform developed into a robust dialogue space called the National Unity Consultative Council NUCC which serves us as a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss policy towards establishing federal democracy.
The National Unity Government was formed as the executive body with a fully-functioning cabinet despite the limitations and risks posed by the junta. We at the NUG have continued our work, establishing policy in coordination with the NUCC and CRPH and responding to the people’s needs, despite the limitations.
It is important to note that the NUG has been established by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw CRPH with its legal mandate to form a government endorsed by the NUCC. The NUCC convened the first people’s assembly on January 27 to 29 which signals progress towards establishing institutions necessary for our transition to federal democracy.
We have been laying down the foundation to achieve what the people of Myanmar have long yearned for, which is a federal democracy that recognizes equal rights and the right to self-determination of all member states through power-sharing, revenue-sharing and fiscal federalism.
The abolishing of the 2008 Constitution and new constitution process is fundamental to achieving these goals. The federal democracy charter that the NUCC has rigorously drafted and the people assembly has adopted outlined a clear roadmap towards federal democracy. And the test is accountability and non-negotiability that we must pursue.
The NUG has committed to actively seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya and all other people of Myanmar throughout our history. This will include repealing, amending and promulgating laws including the 1982 Citizenship Law as an integral part of the new constitution process.
We have lodged a declaration with the International Criminal Court ICC, accepting the court’s jurisdiction with respect to all international crimes in Myanmar since 2002. The military (unclear) role in the structure of Myanmar has been one of the fundamental sources of instability including human rights violations in the history for decades. We need to change this to realize our goal to federal democracy is free from threats within.
As such, one of the guiding principles of the federal democracy charter states that federal union, security and defence forces shall be under the supervision and administration of a democratically-elected civilian government.
The roadmap mentioned above is a national solution by the people of Myanmar. The NUG and all democratic forces in the country are determined to realize them.
Your excellencies, as you get together to discuss the challenges together in the ASEAN, especially in Myanmar, I would like to ask you to listen to the people’s will deeply and appreciate the track we are pursuing. The NUG wishes to support the establishment of (unclear) to support the ASEAN chair on its engagement with Myanmar stakeholders. We call on the ASEAN chair to bring a more coordinated approach so that the ASEAN and the international community, including the United Nations, can act effectively for the people of Myanmar.
One, saving lives through humanitarian assistance is most urgent. ASEAN cannot rely only on the approval of Min Aung Hlaing to assist internally displaced people. We would like to urge ASEAN to proceed with cross-border humanitarian assistance in partnership with border countries such as Thailand, India and China, working through a wide network of civil society and ethnic organizations who are protecting the most vulnerable.
And second, the ASEAN must focus on facilitating an inclusive national process road map towards constitutional change which reflects the aspirations of the people of Myanmar towards federal democracy.
And thirdly, immediate cessation of violence can only become a reality if the Myanmar coup leaders implement the following actions: the Military Council must not carry out air strikes against civilian targets, and the Military Council must commit to an unconditional cessation of military attacks on PDF and EAO controlled areas, and the Military Council must allow an independent investigation into alleged war crimes involving massacres, crimes, and the burning of civilian properties.
ASEAN’s Cambodia experience should remind us of the Paris Peace Accords and United Nations transitional authority in Cambodia. ASEAN, along with the United Nations and the international community as a whole must no longer ignore the geographic breadth and social depth of the nation-wide anti-junta movement. We implore the international community as a whole to stand with the people of Myanmar and support them both in bringing this crisis to an end and in their desire for a genuine federal democratic union.
Your excellencies, thank you so much for your time and in getting that opportunity to share my opinion and to share the voice of the people of Myanmar.
Thank you so much.
