ASEAN's special envoy for Myanmar visited the member country on Monday for the first time since one was appointed following a military coup in February 2021 that ousted the country's elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn of Cambodia (L) and Myanmar's military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing are pictured in Naypyitaw on March 21, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Myanmar military/Kyodo)

Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn of Cambodia, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, held talks with Myanmar's military chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, after arriving in the capital Naypyitaw, according to the military's information department.

No meeting with Suu Kyi has been planned during Prak Sokhonn's three-day visit, however, as the military has refused any contact with the country's democracy icon, who remains under house arrest and is facing multiple prison terms after being put on trial on more than 10 charges.

According to a diplomatic source, a meeting is being arranged with a member of the leadership of Suu Kyi's formerly ruling National League for Democracy who has escaped being criminally charged following the coup.

Prak Sokhonn doubles as Cambodia's foreign minister.

ASEAN leaders agreed last April on the so-called five-point consensus that calls for an immediate stop to violence in Myanmar and the dispatch of an ASEAN envoy to the country. In August, the second foreign minister of Brunei, which was then ASEAN chair, was appointed as the special envoy.

However, the military refused to allow access to Suu Kyi, leaving ASEAN unable to send the envoy. Min Aung Hlaing was kept out of ASEAN's annual summit in October after the military did not stop violence toward Myanmar citizens.

As this year's ASEAN chair, Cambodia has been willing to hold a dialogue with the Myanmar military, with Prime Minister Hun Sen becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country since the Feb. 1 coup when he held talks with the military leader in Naypyitaw in January.

Cambodia has indicated it is in no hurry to have a meeting with Suu Kyi.

Nearly 1,700 people have died in Myanmar at the hands of the military since the coup, according to a human rights group monitoring the situation in the country. In some parts of the country, pro-democracy elements have taken up arms against the ruling regime.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


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