APHR condemns Myanmar junta’s refusal to let ASEAN envoy meet Aung San Suu Kyi

Mizzima

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a regional network of lawmakers, has condemned Myanmar’s military junta for barring the ASEAN Special Envoy from meeting detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, calling the refusal the latest in a pattern of denials that has kept ASEAN representatives from accessing her since November 2021, according to a press release on 7 July.

The Five-Point Consensus, agreed by ASEAN leaders and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in April 2021 following the coup, commits the junta to end violence, allow humanitarian access, and permit an ASEAN special envoy to hold dialogue with all parties to Myanmar’s conflict. APHR said that commitment has never been honoured when it comes to Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the party that won Myanmar’s last free election in 2020.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, serving as ASEAN’s 2026 Special Envoy on Myanmar, formally requested access to Aung San Suu Kyi on 6 May, following reports she had been moved from prison to house arrest. A junta spokesperson, Khaing Khaing Soe, confirmed on 30 June that the request had been denied, saying Aung San Suu Kyi remained ineligible to meet international representatives while serving her sentence.

“A ‘positive step’ that forecloses all independent verification is no step at all,” APHR Chairperson Mercy Chriesty Barends said in the statement, arguing that the junta’s April announcement of Aung San Suu Kyi’s transfer to house arrest had sought diplomatic credit without offering any way to verify her condition independently.

The condemnation follows a 19 June report to the UN General Assembly by Julie Bishop, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, who called for Aung San Suu Kyi’s urgent release and said her condition had gone unverified by independent observers for years.

APHR urged Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his capacity as ASEAN Chair, and other member states to press for Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate and unconditional release along with that of all political prisoners, and to secure access for her family, legal counsel, and an independent medical team to confirm her whereabouts and wellbeing. The group also called for any further ASEAN engagement with the junta to be strictly conditioned on verifiable progress under the Five-Point Consensus, and for increased pressure on the junta’s external backers, including China, to secure her release.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 81, has been held since the military seized power on 1 February 2021. Her transfer from Naypyidaw Prison to an undisclosed “house arrest” location came in late April, days before the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu. Junta officials have described her health as “very good,” a claim her son, Kim Aris, has disputed, saying he has received reports she suffers from heart disease and osteoporosis. Neither her exact whereabouts nor her health have been independently verified.