Bangkok Forum Must Not Grant Legitimacy to Myanmar Junta Boss

Myanmar reels from the devastation of the recent earthquake, but the military junta continues to prioritize control and violence over the well-being of its people. While communities dig through rubble with their bare hands, desperate to rescue loved ones, the military junta continues airstrikes, blocks aid, and punishes those who try to help.

Yet the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), an emerging forum for economic cooperation in the region, has decided to extend a platform to the regime as if it were a legitimate government.

Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing is to attend this week’s BIMSTEC forum in Bangkok, where so far he has quite rightly been persona non grata under ASEAN rules but will now presumably be treated with the diplomatic courtesy reserved for heads of state.