ASEAN should not go along with China's Myanmar policy By K.Z. Lu
ASEAN should not go along with China's Myanmar policy By K.Z. Lu
MoeMaka ၊ May 15 ၊ 2025
ASEAN mission is to promote regional peace and stability through respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the U.N. Charter. However, the group has been shutting its eyes avoiding war-crimes, extrajudicial killings and violence against women and children taking place daily in its area. There is no law and order at all under the Myanmar military regime's dictatorship. Moreover, ASEAN should notice China's neo-colonialism upon Myanmar which exploiting politically and economically a poor nation run by a military junta. Most important fact is that China supports the wrong side in Myanmar's crisis - against the will of Myanmar peoples. Supporting junta's fake elections means killing Myanmar peoples' future dreams.
ASEAN must be committed to promote economic developments, societies' progress and cultural exchanges in the South-East Asia region as well as to strengthen the institution for a thriving and well-organized community of Southeast Asian nations. But, one of its members is an illegal military-run nation that pays no attention to the rules and regulations of the grouping. It is the responsibility of the ASEAN to take action seriously against the recalcitrance member, Myanmar.
“This country is facing a catastrophe,” said Hasan.“The most important thing is how the Myanmar people can be rescued and receive assistance.” Regime forces have carried out 46 air and artillery strikes across the country since April 2, according to DVB data. Sixty-seven civilians have been killed in 108 air and artillery attacks since the earthquake struck on March 28.
The Myanmar junta has been committing many more brutal crimes-against-humanity by airstrikes in which the regime used widely banned cluster bombs. Even though the junta renewed its ceasefire from May 6 to 31, there were numerous airstrikes throughout the country that were controlled by the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs). The regime first announced its ceasefire on April 2 – three days after the NUG – but since then it has killed 290 people and injured another 657 in over 489 air and artillery attacks, according to DVB data.
Recently, the death toll at the Depayin Township school attacked by Myanmar junta jet fighters on 12 May has risen to 24 after two more children died from their injuries. The National Unity Government (NUG) and reliable witnesses claimed that the junta used widely banned cluster bombs attacking 'O Htein Twin village' school in Sagaing Region. Although the Myanmar military junta is not a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the recent attack on 'O Htein Twin village' school was not only a war crime but also a violation of international humanitarian law, according to analysts.
According to the DVB News, Depayin Township residents told DVB that the death toll from Monday’s regime airstrikes on a school operated by the National Unity Government (NUG) in Ohteintwin village, Sagaing Region, increased to 22. Depayin is situated 40 miles (64 km) north of Monywa, the capital of the Sagaing Region. .
“The youngest student [killed] was seven,” a People’s Defence Force (PDF) member told DVB. Twenty of those killed were students below the age of 18. The other two were teachers in their twenties. Fifty civilians were wounded and half of them are in critical condition at the hospital. DVB said that it has documented at least 439 civilians have been killed by 629 air and artillery strikes since March 28 with 490 of these attacks occurring after the ceasefire first began on April 2.
While some airstrikes are targeted at conflict-zones to smash resistance troops, many others hit schools, churches, pagodas, monasteries, and civilian quarters. Remarkably, the recent strikes in Oe Htein Twin village and Rathedaung were not linked to military camps or revolutionaries' strongholds. .
Those recent airstrikes resembled to past air-attacks such as the Let Yet Kone school bombing in 2022 or the strike on a Kachin cultural concert in Hpakant, the military appears to be indiscriminately targeting civilian refuges. It seems the military relies on airpower as it continues to lose ground in rural areas and cannot manage to gain ground offensives. On the other hand, it uses more air-force power in order to threaten local peoples who supported the resistance troops..
But the junta's purpose of military victory is in vain by terrorizing the civilian population and destroying the civil infrastructure in the areas under oppositions' controls.. According to some analysts, that nearly four years after the military coup, the military junta just controls less than 30% of the territories including ethnic areas. .
Tens of thousands are still living outside after the catastrophic earthquakes demolished or badly damaged their homes, facing the prospect of the monsoon season starting in the coming weeks.
The United Nations and independent conflict monitors say the junta has continued its campaign of aerial bombardment despite the armistice meant to alleviate suffering. Last week, the UN said that since the earthquake more than 200 civilians had been killed in at least 243 military attacks, including 171 airstrikes.
“Instead of spending every ounce of energy and resources on saving lives, [the regime] decided that it wants to take lives,” Tom Andrews, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told DVB. He called on the international community to “insist” that the regime cease its attacks.
On last February 10, the ASEAN Special Envoy on Myanmar Othman Hashim met with the National Unity Government (NUG), the Karen National Union (KNU), the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the Chin National Front (CNF), and the New Mon State Party – Anti-Dictatorship (NMSP-AD) in Bangkok, Thailand.
This followed Hashim’s visit with the regime in Naypyidaw Feb. 6-8, where he reportedly urged it to cease hostilities, the VOA reported.
Hashim discussed three of the five points in the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus, which was agreed to by Min Aung Hlaing in April 2021 but not implemented upon his return to Myanmar. The Special Envoy wants both sides in Myanmar to end violence, allow humanitarian aid deliveries, and begin inclusive dialogue among all stakeholders, the VOA added.
However, Hashim's discussions may not be materialized due to basic concepts about the Myanmar issue. Myanmar's current contradiction is not a civil war between political rivals including EAOs.
ASEAN should try to convince the situation about Myanmar issue via the genuine determinations of its peoples. The most important problem is that all walks of peoples are disgusted with the military dictatorship. They want a government of the people, by the people and for the people. As a result, the youth generations at the vanguard are launching a revolution to change the systems. According to Generation-Z, the current movement is not a civil-war but a revolution towards system-change for a new federal democracy union with no place for military personnel on the political stage. Armed-forces must be under the guidance of the parliamentary government. In brief, military personnel must take accountability only for the defense services.
In conclusion, ASEAN should know the basic demands of the Myanmar People - no military inclusion in the politics except defense duties. So, there may not be peace-talks for the sake of the military's benefits. Military must quit from the realm of the party-politics. People are tired of the military dictatorship. That's why people oppose Chinese interventions by supporting Min Aung Hlaing's military faction.
ASEAN should not repeat China's hegemonism. Especially, ASEAN should stay away from China's policy on Myanmar concerning a fake election in December this year. It will make more blood-sheds in the poverty-stricken country. Myanmar populations do not hate the ordinary Chinese peoples but Xi Jinping's aggressive policy.
China must remember the teaching of its former master Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping teaches them never to be a tyrant in order to bully other nations. See below:
"China is not a superpower, nor will she ever seek to be one. If one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it." ( Deng Xiaoping: 1974 Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly)
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