Myanmar minister joins Asean defence meeting as junta shifts Suu Kyi trial to prison
- 600 civic groups appealed against inviting General Mya Tun Oo, accusing him of complicity in violence by Myanmar’s military as it seeks to crush opposition
- Military rulers have without explanation ordered all legal proceedings against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be moved from a courtroom to a prison
Myanmar’s defence minister, under sanctions from the United States, Britain and other countries for abuses committed by his country’s military, was welcomed on Wednesday to an annual meeting with his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
General Mya Tun Oo wore his military uniform as he attended the Asean defence ministers’ meeting in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
More than 600 civic groups inside and outside Myanmar had issued an appeal to the ministers not to invite him. They accuse him of complicity in violence committed by Myanmar’s military as it seeks to crush opposition to its seizure of power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a private organisation that tracks government killings and arrests, said Friday that 2,000 civilians have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces. The army is also battling anti-government guerillas in the countryside.
Mya Tun Oo has also been accused of involvement in atrocities carried out by the army against the Muslim Rohingya minority in 2017, when he was chief of the military’s general staff, the third most powerful post in the army.
International courts are investigating allegations that the military committed genocide in brutal counter-insurgency campaigns that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh for safety.