For years, the head of Myanmar’s army, General of General Min Aung Hlaing, has been treated as a paria on the global stage.
General Min Aung Hlaing has made few travel abroad, apart from Russia and China, as he took power in a coup in 2021. Long the subject of Western sanctions, he has been prevented from attending meetings of the Association of South Nations -East Asian, of which Myanmar is a member, due to his military to implement a Country Peace Plan in the country. A detention warranty On the part of the International Criminal Court, last November, accusing of crimes against humanity, he is supposed to be more isolated.
But on Friday, General Aung Hlaing started talks in Bangkok at a regional summit of a group of seven Bengal Bay countries that also includes India and Thailand. He was planning to discuss the ways that other countries could provide relief to the March 28 earthquake in Myanmar who killed more than 3,000 people.
On Thursday, on the day of his arrival in Bangkok, his military launched several aerial attacks in the state of Kachin, the state of Karenni and the Sagaing region in Myanmar, despite his call for a cessation of fire, according to a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army Rebel Group, a saga activist and a help worker at Karenni.
Myanmar’s military have been critical of fierce Continuing their aerial attacks in the ongoing civil war and prevent the flow of help in the days after the earthquake.
For the general, Bangkok’s visit, his first to a South Nation -East Asian since April 2021, will give his regime the international care he has long wished. For the Thai government, which is already receiving tens of thousands of Myanmar refugees in the camps along the border, they could have to try to manage the flow of new arrivals.
But critics say the visit is the last indication that Bangkok believes that human rights are irrelevant to foreign policy.
« They do not care, » said Kasit Piromya, a former Thai Foreign Minister.
« It is an insult to Asean, this is what it is, » he said, referring to the Southeast Southeast Southeast Asian Grouping as an acronym. « It is the fear of the Burmese army, greed and because they are not democratic. »
Thailand has said little about the visit of General Min Aung Hlaing, beyond confirming that it took place.
Justice for Myanmar, a surveillance group and another 318 organizations asked Thailand to disinvite the general, saying that he had no legitimacy to represent the people of Myanmar. When foreign governments and international organizations relate to the Military Board, the organizations said in a statement, « it caused significant damage to the people of Myanmar » by legitimizing the Board and attending -in their war against its people.
« Senior Mining Aung Hlaing is very good with Bangkok Asian leaders after a devastating earthquake because he does not care about Myanmar’s people, » said Elaine Pearson, director of Asia in Human Rights Watch, in a statement. « What is concerned is to obtain some legitimacy through high -level visits, since since February 2021 it has been rightly ostracized by most of the international community. »
India leaders, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal were planned to attend the summit, along with those of Thailand and Myanmar.
Wednesday, Myanmar’s military declared a cessation of 21 -day fire To support the efforts of relief and reconstruction, a day later he fired on a Combo of the Chinese Red Cross, trying to deliver food and medicine to desperate survivors.
The military on Thursday launched an air attack on Karenni’s state, according to David Ebank, by Free Burma Rangers, a help organization in Myanmar. He said that the soldiers led a control point led by Karenni’s rebels, killing a person and injuring four more people, he said.
In the state of Kachin, the military fell bombs with fighters. « Because they are those who attack, we have no choice but to fight a defensive war, » said Colonel Naw Bu, spokesman for the Kachin’s Army Army.
« They claim that armed groups should not take advantage of a politician, but they are the ones who explode the situation for their own gain, » he added. « They are violating the rules they establish. »
Later on Thursday night, the military used a heavy artillery to encompass the populations of Monywa and Chaung-U in Sagaing, near the epicenter of the earthquake, according to Ma May, an activist based in Sagaing. He also directed the municipality of Kani in the Sagaing region with air attacks, he said.
General Min Aung Hlaing, a deeply unpopular leader, was even more disgusting after a democratically elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize, in the coup.
Since then, The country has been at warWith groups of armed protesters and powerful ethnic armies fighting the Board. In response, the military launched a devastated land campaign against their own citizens with multiple aerial attacks, killing thousands. At least three million are displaced. Myanmar’s economy has been destroyed after the coup, with millions of people launched in extreme poverty and crime, such as online scam centers that bloom in the country, has aggravated.
Hölzl Contributed reports.
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