Myanmar rebuffs Asean call to free Aung San Suu Kyi, questions need for envoy

Myanmar will continue to work with Asean’s special envoy but does not see the need to continue when Singapore takes over on January 1

Asean came up with a peace plan for the Southeast Asian country in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among contending parties, to be facilitated by the special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level meetings for failing to comply with the plan.

In an apparent effort to placate critics, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week, the first known contact with an outside international independent humanitarian organisation since her detention five years ago.

Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital Naypyidaw, on charges that her supporters and rights groups have said are politically motivated.