Foreign Ministers of
the 10-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) repeated its
calls for a durable solution to the northern Rakhine crisis in Myanmar, one of
its member states.
By Myanmar Times
The ASEAN foreign
ministers also want a speedy and safe return of the over 650,000 Muslim
residents who fled northern Rakhine to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape
violence.
Renewed violence in
northern Rakhine erupted on August 25 last year when Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army (ARSA) fighters, which the government labels a terrorist organization,
attacked government outposts that killed several security forces.
The Myanmar armed
forces, locally known as Tatmadaw, retaliated with ferocity, launching “clearing
operations” that killed hundreds of people.
The international
community, including the United Nations, accused the Tatmadaw of excesses and
human rights abuses, while human rights organisations accused government
security forces of systematic “cleansing” of Muslims.
Most Myanmar people
do not consider the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups, but
consider them illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh even though they
have lived in Rakhine for generations.
In November last
year, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement that would pave the way for
the return of the refugees.
The repatriation was
supposed to start last month but has been delayed as several issues remain
unresolved.
Singapore Foreign
Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said ASEAN’s top diplomats stressed the need to
find a “comprehensive and durable solution” to the root cause of the conflict
but acknowledged there is no quick fix to the problem, which has festered for
decades.
According to The
Associated Press, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said after the
informal talks, the ministers’ first meeting under Singapore’s chairmanship,
“ASEAN is fully committed to assist the Myanmar government in humanitarian
response, but ultimately, what we need is a long-term political solution.”
Aside from the
northern Rakhine issue, the ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the decades-old
problems of conflicting claims in the South China Sea.
Balakrishnan said
some ASEAN ministers voiced concern over China’s land reclamation activities in
the South China Sea, but they were encouraged by an agreement last year by both
sides to start formal negotiations for a code of conduct governing behaviour in
the disputed area, AP said.
Asked if talks will
begin in Vietnam in March, Balakrishnan declined to say.
“The situation in
the South China Sea is calmer now. I believe there is shared good faith and
good will from both sides to try to make a significant advance this year. And
that is why we should be able to start negotiations soon,” he said.
He said talks will follow a “mutually agreed
timeline,” but declined to elaborate.
“Building up trust
and getting the sequence right and doing it step by step is more important than
doing it in a hasty way because there is an artificial deadline,” he added.
Beijing claims
nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the disputed area into
islands, installing military facilities and equipment in the area.
China, Taiwan and
four ASEAN member states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — have
overlapping claims in the waterway, which straddles busy international sea
lanes and potentially has vast undersea deposits of oil and gas.
Balakrishnan said
the ministers also focused on charting the way forward for the 51-year-old
grouping based on Singapore’s chosen theme of “resilience and innovation.”
He said they
supported Singapore’s proposal to develop ASEAN smart cities that will leverage
technology to improve people’s livelihood, and to boost their resilience
against terrorism and trans boundary crime.
“We want to ensure
that all of us continue to invest in our infrastructure and our people, enhance
our connectivity and ultimately to secure peace and prosperity” in the region,
he added.
ASEAN was set up in
1967 as an anti-communist bulwark but attention has shifted in the past two
decades toward greater economic integration.
Its members include
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.