Myanmar’s military junta has agreed to a ceasefire requested by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the group’s special envoy, Erywan Yusof, said.
Erywan, who is Brunei’s second foreign minister, disclosed this in an interview with Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
The special envoy had proposed the ceasefire in a videoconference with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin last week and his request was accepted in the interview on Saturday.
He had indirectly passed the same message to the groups opposing the military coup, the ASEAN envoy added.
The move has drawn heavy criticism in Myanmar, however, where people accuse ASEAN of doing too little in recent months to protect the people from a brutal military crackdown.
“ASEAN did not protect us when the junta killed the civilians, but now the civilians fight back against the junta and ASEAN wants to protect them,” one user posted in response to a news report on the Voice of America’s Burmese website.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the country’s military staged a coup on Feb. 1, ousting the elected civilian government and arresting leaders, including Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
More than 1,000 people have been killed so far in the military’s crackdown on protests, according to the local Assistance Association for Political Prisoners NGO.
In many regions, armed resistance movements have formed.
