Connect with us

AFP

Myanmar crisis to top agenda at ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting

ASEAN foreign ministers meet to discuss the Myanmar crisis while being divided on reengaging with the ruling junta. Talks will also address China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Published

1 year ago

on

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — ASEAN foreign ministers will gather in Indonesia on Tuesday for talks set to be dominated by the crisis in Myanmar, with the regional bloc divided over how or whether to reengage with the coup-wracked country’s ruling junta.

The two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting will be followed by talks with Beijing, Washington and other powers where top US diplomat Antony Blinken will seek to push back on China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

ASEAN has long been decried as a toothless talking shop, and it remains split over diplomatic attempts to resolve the Myanmar crisis.

The country has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent.

A Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP that “extra efforts” were being made in the days before the meeting to unite the group around the issue.

However, the official was “not too optimistic” that would happen given that a “few members have different perspectives on how to approach the problem”, they said.

Myanmar remains an ASEAN member but has been barred from high-level meetings over the junta’s failure to implement a five-point plan, agreed two years ago, to end the violence and restart negotiations to resolve the crisis.

ASEAN efforts to kick-start the plan’s execution have been fruitless, as the junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents.

Thailand, meanwhile, hosted the junta’s foreign minister for controversial “informal talks” last month, deepening the divisions between the ASEAN members that attended and abstained.

‘Clearer’ plan

The bloc’s initiatives are limited by its charter principles of consensus and noninterference, but analysts say the meeting could push members to do more.

“It is hoped there will be a clearer implementation plan on what will ASEAN do going forward,” Lina Alexandra of Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told AFP.

The meeting would be a “crucial” opportunity for Indonesia as ASEAN chair to unite the regional bloc after the Thailand talks, she said.

On Thursday, an ASEAN-plus-three ministerial meeting with Japan, South Korea and China will take place ahead of an 18-nation East Asia Summit foreign ministers’ meeting on Friday, which will also include Washington and Beijing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to attend the latter meeting, again putting him in the same room as US Secretary of State Blinken after a brief March meeting as Moscow’s Ukraine invasion grinds on.

Beijing’s actions in the dispute-rife South China Sea will also be high on the agenda, Daniel Kritenbrink, the top US diplomat for East Asia, told reporters Saturday.

China has made sweeping claims in the strategic waterway despite protests from ASEAN members Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as other nations who argue for unimpeded freedom of navigation and that their own territorial claims be respected.

The United States and ASEAN will seek to “push back on behaviour that runs counter to that vision and to those principles, including the many irresponsible acts that we’ve seen carried out by China over the last several years”, Kritenbrink said.

— AFP

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

Published

1 year ago

on

26 July 2023

By

SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

Continue Reading

AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

Published

1 year ago

on

25 July 2023

By

SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

Continue Reading

Trending