ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says it’s time to form a new and robust plan to bring an end to the military junta’s rule…
London, UK
Earlier this month, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) renewed their commitment to the ‘Five-Point Consensus’ (5PC) on restoring democracy in Myanmar.
The 5PC – which was agreed upon by the nine ASEAN leaders and the chief of the military junta Min Aung Hlaing in April, 2021 – commits to five points, including an immediate end to violence in the country and dialogue among all parties.
Man Win Village destroyed by Burma Army arson attacks. PICTURE: Free Burma Rangers via CSW
This is of course what Myanmar urgently needs, and on 5th September the ASEAN leaders published a statement announcing that they would maintain the 5PC as the “main reference to address the political crisis in Myanmar”. They also formally announced that the 2026 chairmanship will go to the Philippines and not Myanmar, which is another welcome and necessary step.
But it is not enough.
“There has been no end to the violence, let alone an ‘immediate’ one, as the military supposedly agreed to over two years ago now. Artillery and aerial bombardment are a daily occurrence for many civilians, as are arson attacks on homes, schools, hospitals and places of worship.”
Just one paragraph before they reaffirmed their commitment to the 5PC, those same leaders expressed their grave concern at “the lack of substantial progress on the implementation by the Authority in Myanmar”. That is to say, ASEAN seem to have re-committed to a peace plan that they already know is not working.
There has been no end to the violence, let alone an ‘immediate’ one, as the military supposedly agreed to over two years ago now. Artillery and aerial bombardment are a daily occurrence for many civilians, as are arson attacks on homes, schools, hospitals and places of worship.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, over 4,000 people have been killed since the coup took place in February 2021, and there are over 1.5 million who are currently displaced and in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
On the same day that ASEAN published its statement, villagers in Pyin Htaung Lay in the Katha Township of Sagaing woke up to surprise drone attacks by military forces.
According to Myanmar Now, the military began to drop bombs at around 5am, and subsequently sent a column of 80 soldiers into the village who then proceeded to set fire to houses and other buildings, including the village’s clinic. A source reported that at least 30 structures were ‘reduced to ashes’, and the village remains under military occupation at the time of writing.
This has been the strategy of the Myanmar army for over two-and-a-half years now. As Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay recently concluded in groundbreaking reporting on the crisis, “The idea is to break down society”.
One strategy the military has adopted to do this is known as the ‘Four Cuts’ approach, which involves cutting off sources of food, funds, information and recruits from any armed opposition. It is largely aimed at villages of unarmed civilians, the intention being to prevent or deter locals from supporting or joining the resistance.
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The Myanmar military has employed this strategy as far back as the 1960s, when it was used to crush armed resistance in Karen National Union controlled areas in the east of the country, and in its present form it has provided a rationale for a litany of egregious human rights violations that include torture, arbitrary detention and sexual violence, in addition to the aforementioned killings and widespread destruction of properties and homes.
ASEAN, like the rest of the international community, is fully aware that the military is responsible for this – it would not be calling for an end to the violence or denying Myanmar the chairmanship if it wasn’t. And yet the bloc seems insistent on pursuing a strategy that has already clearly failed the people of Myanmar for over two years.
There is a need to form a new and robust plan to bring an end to the junta’s rule. Sanctions must be co-ordinated and enforced, not just by ASEAN but by the wider international community, and the military must be held to account for violations that the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar has claimed amount to crimes against humanity.
Words of condemnation are welcome, but without swift and concrete action they will become meaningless. The people of Myanmar have waited for a robust, coordinated international response for too long. The time for action is now.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
