THE I DIPLOMAT
By Luke HuntFebruary 10, 2021
Min Aung Hlaing’s seizure of power in Myanmar has shaken up the region’s diplomatic balance.
The third coup d’etat in Myanmar since the country’s independence in 1948 has installed a leader who is already named for an alleged genocide and a long list of atrocities linked to the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya four years ago.
Sen. Gen. Aung Min Hlaing is the type of leader ASEAN can do without. Hearings into the atrocities at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are continuing and this is just one factor regional leaders are struggling with since his rise to power through the barrel of gun.
Promises that this junta will be “different” from its predecessors and that multiparty elections will be held in a year just don’t cut it. New Zealand has already suspended high-level contacts and imposed a travel ban on its military leaders.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is demanding the coup be reversed.