The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) appointed Police Colonel Zaw Lin Tun of the Myanmar Police Force as Executive Director of the ASEAN Police Secretariat at the 40th ASEANAPOL Conference, despite the association previously banning any representatives from Myanmar’s Military Council from attending a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers on 16 and 17 February.

ASEAN also invited a Myanmar Police Force delegation to the 40th ASEANAPOL Conference held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 1 to 4 March, despite accusations of serious human rights violations against the Myanmar Police Force.

This makes ASEAN’s commitments to exclude the Myanmar junta from the association’s decision-making process until they stop committing human rights abuses seem fairly hollow.

Myanmar Police Colonel Zaw Lin Tun took over the post of Executive Director of the ASEAN Police Secretariat from Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Singapore Jim Wee at a handover ceremony held at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel on 3 March and he will serve in the post until 2023, according to the pro-Military Council Myanmar Digital News.

Senior Police officers from the 10 ASEAN nations and representatives from INTERPOL, the International Association of Chiefs of Police-IACP, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) based in the US, Canada and France, and police officers from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand, Turkey, Great Britain, Australia also attended the ASEANAPOL conference.

They discussed mutual assistance in criminal matters such as drug trafficking, violence, arms smuggling, human trafficking, wildlife crimes, maritime frauds, business fraud, cyber-crime, forgery of travel documents, and matters related to ASEAN Police Capacity Building Programme and forensic science linkages, according to Myanmar Digital News.