Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Wednesday that more than 200,000 refugees have fled Myanmar to his country and urgently called for new ways to persuade Myanmar’s ruling generals to resolve the civil conflict.
Since the military takeover in Myanmar in 2021, 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 to Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps.
The 10-nation ASEAN bloc has a bedrock principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other members. Anwar said the deadly crisis in Myanmar “cannot be considered as purely internal because it’s affecting the security and welfare of the region.” ASEAN’s peace plan calls for an immediate end to the violence, a visit by an ASEAN special envoy to foster dialogue among rival parties and provision of humanitarian aid.
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