Myanmar Junta leader to attend ASEAN summit, first foreign trip since 1st February coup

General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the Junta, will attend a special summit in Jakarta next week, according to the Thai foreign ministry, in what will be the coup leader's first official trip since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar has been in chaos since the 1st February coup, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets to demand a return to democracy.

As per a local monitoring organisation, the junta has used lethal force to suppress the anti-coup campaign, killing over 720 people and imprisoning over 3,100 activists, journalists, and dissidents. The international community has largely denounced the junta's use of force against unarmed civilians, imposing sanctions on top military brass, their families, and army-related businesses.

Regional leaders, however, have tried to open lines of communication with the regime, and Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday that Min Aung Hlaing would attend a summit in Jakarta on Myanmar's situation. "Several leaders, including Myanmar's MAH (Min Aung Hlaing), have confirmed their attendance," said spokesman Tanee Sangrat in a message to reporters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference, scheduled for April 24 in Jakarta, is expected to discuss the current crisis in post-coup Myanmar. The junta has repeatedly justified the coup by claiming widespread fraud in the November elections, which Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide.

The military has stated that it will hand over power to a civilian administration after elections in about a year, but they have recently expanded the timeframe to two years.

The news of the junta leader's attendance arrives on the same day that the country's prisons are due to free over 23,000 inmates. Myanmar usually grants amnesty to thousands of prisoners each year to commemorate its traditional Buddhist New Year holiday, which has been marked in previous years by city-wide water wars. This year, however, anti-coup activists have used the holiday to protest the rising death toll and mass arrests.

On the condition of anonymity, a prison official told AFP that over 23,000 people would be released from prisons across the country. "We will release over 800 prisoners from Insein jail" in Yangon's commercial centre, he said, declining to elaborate.

In February, the junta released a similar number of inmates, prompting some rights organisations to worry that the move would open up room for military opponents while also causing instability in communities. On Wednesday, a rebel group executed a man who had been released under amnesty and was accused of raped and killing a five-year-old child.

The regime also released approximately 900 imprisoned protesters just before Armed Forces Day. Nevertheless, since the February 1 coup, more than 3,100 people have been arrested, the vast majority of whom are anti-coup demonstrators and activists, according to the local monitoring organisation Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The junta has released arrest warrants on state-run media on a nightly basis, specifically targeting celebrities, influencers, journalists, and influential activists with broad social media followings. They had a total of 380 by Friday night. Also, 80 doctors have been identified as wanted fugitives for attempting to "degrade peace and stability."

Healthcare workers in Myanmar have been at the forefront of a national civil disobedience campaign, refusing to operate under a military dictatorship. Because of their absence, many of the country's hospitals have been left unstaffed during the pandemic.