Indonesia president Jokowi calls for Asean high-level meeting on Myanmar crisis

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Friday (March 19) called for democracy to be restored and violence to be halted in Myanmar and for South-east Asian leaders to hold a high-level meeting to discuss the situation there.

"I will immediately call the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam as head of Asean to as soon as possible hold a high-level Asean meeting to discuss the crisis in Myanmar," he said in a virtual address.

Brunei is currently chair of the 10-member Asean.

Meanwhile, ousted Myanmar lawmakers are exploring whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate any crimes against humanity committed since the Feb 1 coup, as an activist group said three more people had died in clashes with security forces.  

Military and police have used increasingly violent tactics to suppress demonstrations by supporters of detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi but that has not put off the protests, with crowds out again in several towns on Friday.

The total number killed in weeks of unrest has risen to at least 224, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said, noting another death in the commercial hub of Yangon and two in the cities of Monywa and Bago on Thursday (March 18).  

Myanmar’s United Nations envoy, who publicly broke with the junta, said a committee of ousted lawmakers was looking at ways people can be held accountable for violence following the coup.  

“The ICC is one of them,” Mr Kyaw Moe Tun told an event in New York. “We are not a state party to the ICC, but we need to...  explore the ways and means to bring the case to the ICC.”

In Geneva, UN human rights experts denounced forced evictions, arbitrary detentions and the killings of pro-democracy protesters.

They said foreign governments should consider pursuing those responsible for crimes against humanity.  

A junta spokesman has said security forces have used force only when necessary.