Bangkok: Myanmar's military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and questioned the need for the organisation's special envoy on Myanmar, according to the foreign affairs ministry.
President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who seized power from Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021, has been seeking political legitimacy since the takeover and attempting to restore relations with ASEAN.
ASEAN introduced a peace plan for Myanmar in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among the country's opposing parties, with the process to be facilitated by a special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level ASEAN meetings for failing to comply with the plan.
In an apparent effort to address international criticism, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week. It was the first known contact with an independent international humanitarian organisation since her detention five years ago.
Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital Naypyitaw on charges that her supporters and rights groups have described as politically motivated.
The current ASEAN chair, the Philippines, welcomed the meeting as a step towards dialogue and reconciliation on Friday, while urging greater access to political detainees and reiterating its call for Suu Kyi's "complete and unconditional release".
Myanmar's foreign ministry criticised the call in a statement issued late Saturday.
"Although the government has commuted her sentences based on humanitarian considerations, the matter of a full and unconditional release shall only be carried out in accordance with the law," it said.
The statement also said the government would continue working with ASEAN's current special envoy, Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, but did not see the need to continue the arrangement when Singapore takes over as ASEAN chair on 1 January 2027.
"At present, the government, which emerged from the multiparty democratic elections reflecting the genuine will of the people, has assumed state responsibility," the statement said.
In a speech more than three months after being sworn in as president following the elections, Min Aung Hlaing dismissed ASEAN's peace plan, saying some member states had discriminated against Myanmar and that his government would respond on a case-by-case basis.
Critics have dismissed the elections, held in December and January, as a sham designed to consolidate the military's grip on power while ostensibly restoring civilian rule.
