BANGKOK β Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were told on Sunday by their Myanmar counterpart that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be looked after, according to a special envoy who attended the meeting.
The statement was made during a closed-door session of ASEAN foreign ministers in Bangkok, where Myanmar's military-appointed representative provided assurances about Suu Kyi's welfare. The 79-year-old Nobel laureate has been detained since the military coup on February 1, 2021, and faces multiple criminal charges.
The special envoy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Myanmar representative did not provide specific details about Suu Kyi's health or conditions of detention. ASEAN has been pressing Myanmar's junta for access to Suu Kyi and other political detainees as part of a peace plan agreed upon in April 2021.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with widespread protests and a violent crackdown by security forces. The junta has been accused of human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings. ASEAN's efforts to mediate have made little progress, with the junta largely ignoring the bloc's calls for dialogue.
The meeting in Bangkok was part of ongoing ASEAN efforts to address the crisis in Myanmar, which has seen over 3,000 civilians killed and more than 1 million displaced, according to United Nations estimates.
