Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to speak up and hold Myanmar's military leaders accountable for blatant human rights violations, but said the country should remain in the regional bloc.
Anwar, who took office in November, has become one of the most vocal critics in ASEAN of Myanmar's military, which seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.
“They need to do more because it is causing us a major problem, we have 200,000 refugees in Malaysia alone,” Anwar told The Associated Press after delivering a lecture Thursday at the University of the Philippines, at which he received an honorary degree for advocating democracy and fighting corruption.
Deciding by consensus “does not mean that ASEAN should remain silent over developments in member states that affect the wider region or particularly egregious violations of the ASEAN charter by its own members,” Anwar said.By helping to hold those responsible for violence in Myanmar accountable, ASEAN would stay true to its key ideal of upholding justice and the rule of law, Anwar said.
Since the military's takeover in Myanmar, security forces have killed thousands of civilians and army sweeps through the countryside have displaced more than 1 million people. In 2017, a brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Muslim Rohingya minority drove more than 740,000 to flee across the border into Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps.
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