ASEAN to dedicate two meetings to Myanmar conflict next week, chief says
By Stanley Widianto
JAKARTA (Reuters) -The Southeast Asian grouping ASEAN will hold two meetings specifically on the civil war in army-ruled Myanmar ahead of its summit next week, the bloc's secretary-general said on Wednesday, in a bid to advance its faltering peace effort.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has repeatedly called for a halt in hostilities between rebels and the ruling junta that have displaced an estimated 3.5 million people since the military overthrew the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.
ASEAN's peace proposal that same year, the "Five Point Consensus", which calls for an end to violence and dialogue between warring groups, has made barely any progress, resulting in Myanmar's ruling generals being barred from its summits.
"This is something new that will specifically focus on Myanmar, that they will take no other issue," ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn told Reuters in an interview, referring to the two meetings in Malaysia on Myanmar.
Kao Kim Hourn did not specify the issues up for discussion or if there were new proposals to be made.
He said the first meeting would involve the current, previous and next ASEAN chair nations, namely Malaysia, Laos and Philippines, respectively. The second gathering would be of the bloc's foreign ministers, he said.
Once seen as a promising frontier market following a decade of economic reform and tentative democracy, the 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into chaos, with the military struggling to govern and battling to contain a widening rebellion by ethnic minority rebels and a pro-democracy resistance movement.
The military has been accused of widespread atrocities, including air strikes on civilian areas, allegations it has rejected as western disinformation.
'WE ALL ARE TOO IMPATIENT'
Asked about the lack of progress on Myanmar, Kao Kim Hourn defended ASEAN's plan, describing it as "beautiful", but urged all stakeholders to implement it.
"It will be presumptuous for any party to expect a quick fix to this issue. For us, we stay engaged," he said. "But it may take time. You see, the thing is that we all are too impatient."
"And as long as we bring down, you know, large-scale fighting to a smaller one, as long as we can bring people to the table, that's progress."
He declined to comment on the military launching multiple airstrikes and artillery assaults, as reported by Reuters, despite a ceasefire after a major earthquake in March. Kao Kim Hourn said it was unclear who had violated the ceasefire.
He also reiterated ASEAN countries and China were committed to finalising a protracted code of conduct for the hotly disputed South China Sea by next year, stressing the need to support that effort by maintaining peace.
"What is important for us in this region, number one, is to de-escalate the tensions and to prevent any possible risk of miscalculation, misperception that gives rise to unnecessary tension and maybe conflict," Kao Kim Hourn said.
He also cited good progress towards admitting an 11th member to ASEAN - East Timor - which he said had fulfilled a number of required criteria.
"More likely, it could take place maybe later this year," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bolsonaro denies orchestrating Brazil coup in Supreme Court testimony
BRASILIA (Reuters) -Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government after losing the 2022 election during his trial before the country's Supreme Court on Tuesday, but acknowledged taking part in meetings aimed at reversing the outcome. Bolsonaro said he and senior aides discussed alternatives to accepting the electoral results, including the possibility of deploying military forces and suspending some civil liberties, but he said those proposals were soon dropped. "The feeling was that there was nothing else we could do. We had to swallow the election results," the ex-president said. "I never acted against the Constitution," Bolsonaro added, holding a copy of the country's 1988 charter that re-established democracy after two decades of military rule. In March, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case against Bolsonaro and seven other people, including several military officers, who were charged with plotting a coup to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023. The charges stem from a two-year police investigation into the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital in early 2023, a week after Lula took office. Bolsonaro, who was the sixth defendant to testify in the case, spent several minutes of his two hours of testimony defending his administration's achievements and his criticism of the country's electoral system. Dozens of witnesses were previously heard by the court, an indication that the case is moving swiftly and could be concluded by the end of the year, avoiding overlap with campaigning for the 2026 presidential election. Bolsonaro has insisted he will run in that campaign, despite an electoral court decision barring him from seeking public office until 2030. On Monday, Bolsonaro attended the trial to watch testimony from Mauro Cid, his former aide turned whistleblower, and then shook his hand. Cid told the court that the former president reviewed a draft decree that was central to the coup plot and made changes, while keeping a section that ordered the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is now overseeing the case against Bolsonaro and his allies. On Tuesday, the former president said he only briefly saw the draft decree and never edited it. He also apologized for making unfounded corruption allegations about Supreme Court justices. "Forgive me," he told Moraes. A final ruling on Bolsonaro's case is expected by October.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US firms launch ETF to capitalize on Trump's deregulation push
By Suzanne McGee (Reuters) -A group of three investment management firms teamed up to launch an exchange-traded fund that will invest in companies they expect to benefit from deregulation and free capital markets, the partners in the venture said on Tuesday. The Free Markets ETF, which began trading on the NYSE on Tuesday, will invest in companies in any industry and of any size that its managers think are likely to benefit from the pursuit of deregulation by President Donald Trump in his second administration. "I started thinking about this last summer when the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine," said Hal Lambert, founder of Point Bridge Capital, one of the three firms that will manage the ETF's portfolio. In June 2024, Supreme Court justices ruled 6-3 to overturn a 1984 decision that had given regulatory agencies latitude to interpret the laws they administer. "That was a massive win for companies dealing with big regulatory burdens, and the fact that Trump won (the election) will allow this deregulation process to happen even more speedily," said Lambert. After the election, Lambert connected with Michael Gayed, portfolio manager for Tactical Rotation Management and Todd Stankiewicz of SYKON Asset Management, to develop the ETF. They partnered with Tidal Investments, a "white label" ETF issuer that provides the platform and operational support for other companies to launch their own branded ETFs. "There just wasn't another product out there that invested in deregulation as a theme," said Gayed, who said the portfolio will include everything from bitcoin and gold to shares in companies that look likely to benefit from deregulation, from mid-sized financial firms to the nuclear energy industry. Its largest holdings include stakes in Uranium Energy Corp, Robinhood Markets and Old National Bancorp. "This is about profits, not politics," said Gayed, although he added that the current U.S. political trends are what he expects to translate into profits for the ETF's portfolio. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
US Justice Department 'weaponization' reviews spark calls to drop prosecutions
By Sarah N. Lynch, Ned Parker and Peter Eisler WASHINGTON (Reuters) -As the federal public corruption prosecution of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada neared trial this spring, his lawyers made one last effort to kill the case, by petitioning senior Justice Department officials that it was "weaponization," according to three people familiar with the matter. Under President Donald Trump, the department in February created a "Weaponization Working Group" meant to identify improper politically motivated cases, a response to what the Republican says without evidence was the misuse of prosecutorial resources against him under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. In court filings, prosecutors said that Casada's lawyers met with a senior Justice Department official on March 24, where they alleged the "Deep State" had initiated a "weaponized" prosecution and they sought dismissal of the charges. The plan almost worked, according to three people familiar with the matter. With the Deputy Attorney General's office poised to kill the case, prosecutors in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section pushed back, reviewing their evidence with the higher-ups, the sources said, adding that the Nashville U.S. Attorney's office and the Criminal Division also supported the case. The request was rejected the next week, according to court filings. Both Casada and the DOJ declined to comment. The case is among at least seven Reuters identified where defense attorneys or Justice Department officials have sought to have prosecutions reviewed for possible dismissal, citing Trump's "weaponization" argument or making other arguments about weaknesses in the cases. In a Tuesday speech, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti urged defense attorneys to be "conscientious about what, when and how" they appeal prosecutors' decisions. "Seeking premature relief, mischaracterizing prosecutorial conduct, or otherwise failing to be an honest broker actively undermines our system," Galeotti said. The increase in lobbying started not long after the Weaponization Working Group was created, and after the department's February decision to dismiss criminal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, six sources familiar with the dynamic told Reuters. To date, the Adams case is the only one to be dismissed over 'weaponization,' three of those sources told Reuters. The lobbying wave comes as the Trump administration has dramatically scaled back the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, reduced the size of its foreign bribery unit and advised department attorneys that tax enforcement is "not a priority," two of the people familiar with the matter said. A department spokesman said the DOJ will "continue to enforce our nation's tax laws." Trump has said the changes are necessary to root out Justice Department lawyers he derides as 'hacks and radicals' for prosecuting him and some supporters while he was out of power. NEW GROUP HAS BROAD REMIT The working group is empowered to review any 'civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States' exercised under Biden. A lawyer for Robert Burke, a former Navy admiral who was convicted in May on bribery charges, wrote to the department ahead of trial raising concerns about witness credibility, which failed to convince prosecutors to drop the case. Now the lawyer, Tim Parlatore -- a former Trump defense lawyer -- plans to seek a pardon. "I would be crazy not to at least inquire about a pardon," Parlatore said. Another example is a case involving billionaire Britannia Financial Group founder Julio Martín Herrera-Velutini, who is facing an August trial alongside Puerto Rico's former governor on bribery charges. Herrera-Velutini is represented by former Trump defense attorney Chris Kise, who has sought to convince the Justice Department to dismiss or reduce the charges, though the outcome of such efforts is unclear, three people familiar with the case told Reuters. Kise did not return requests for comment, and Reuters could not determine what arguments he has made to the department about the case. WEAPONIZATION REVIEW While many of the reviews of cases are spurred by aggressive lobbying, some requests are coming from within the DOJ. In early February, prosecutors in the department's Tax Division were ordered by senior Justice Department officials to write a memo explaining why the prosecution of Paul Walczak was not an example of "weaponization," two of the people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Walczak, of Florida, pleaded guilty in November to not paying employment taxes and not filing his individual income tax returns, and the trial team was preparing for his sentencing. Prosecutors were baffled, the people said, and only discovered after a few Google searches that Walczak's mother Elizabeth Fago was a Trump donor who, according to a New York Times report, hosted a political fundraiser where portions of a diary written by Biden's daughter Ashley were circulated. The department let the case proceed, and Walczak was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Trump in April spared him any prison with a pardon, which according to the New York Times, was handed down shortly after Fago attended a $1 million fundraising dinner for Trump. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the pardon. An attorney for Walczak said he was unaware of any interactions by the defense team with the Weaponization Working Group. In a statement, the Fago and Walczak families said media reports have painted an "incomplete and inaccurate" picture of the pardon application, and that Trump had "ample grounds to grant the pardon on the merits." Although no criminal prosecutions have been dismissed, prosecutors are bracing for impact since Trump in May named Ed Martin, a supporter of Trump's false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud, to lead the working group and serve as pardon attorney. Martin has already successfully encouraged Trump to approve pardons for some of the president's supporters, according to his social media posts. Casada, who was convicted at trial in May on multiple counts of fraud, money laundering and bribery, is now expected to seek a pardon, a person familiar with the matter said. "We've also been getting more folks coming forward within the government as well as outside, saying, 'Can you look at this? Can you look at that?'" Martin recently told reporters. "It's a problem that seems to be growing faster than we can capture it."
