BANGKOK (AP) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the leader of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, visited the Thai capital on Thursday for diplomatic talks widely assumed to focus on efforts to restore peace in war-torn Myanmar.
Authorities said the talks would focus on humanitarian assistance following an earthquake in March that devastated Myanmar, and to promote the extension of a fragile ceasefire to facilitate aid delivery.
Anwar also met with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who said they discussed issues of bilateral interest, including development along their mutual border and how nations in the region can respond to the new tariff policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
There was scarce official news of Min Aung Hlaing’s activities on Thursday, and he had not been seen in public.
But the unusual top-level contacts and rare trip abroad by Min Aung Hlaing, as well as the involvement of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, suggest a more substantive political agenda. Thaksin is serving as an informal chief advisor to Anwar, current chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, meeting occasionally with the Malaysian leader on various issues.
Thaksin, who is the father of current Prime Minister Paetongtarn and seen as pulling the strings of her government, has focused on back-channel diplomacy to end Myanmar’s conflict.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021, leading to armed conflict across the country.
The United Nations last week warned that damage caused by the March 28 quake will cause food shortages and a possible public health emergency, worsening the existing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, where the civil war had already displaced more than 3 million people.
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government, said on Wednesday that the death toll from the 7.7 magnitude quake had reached 3,725, with 5,106 injured.
Ahead of his Bangkok trip, Anwar announced that he would push for an extension of the soon-to-expire ceasefires declared by the Myanmar army and its foes, pro-democracy resistance forces and ethnic minority armed groups, to ease aid efforts.
The U.N. Human Rights Office has accused the military of ongoing attacks after the earthquake, and independent Myanmar media and witnesses say the army has conducted numerous airstrikes and artillery attacks since the quake.
However, some experts hope what is known as “disaster diplomacy” can turn the current ceasefires into a broader peacemaking effort where other have failed before.
The 10-member ASEAN, to which Myanmar belongs, agreed soon after the army’s 2021 takeover on a Five-Point Consensus peace plan, but Myanmar’s military government failed to implement it. The regional bloc has since largely barred Min Aung Hlaing and senior members of his ruling council from its high-level meetings.
Min Aung Hlaing’s attendance at a BIMSTEC summit of leaders of nations in Bangkok earlier this month was a rare exception and drew criticism for legitimizing his rule. Thailand has been accused by the opponents of military rule in Myanmar of failing to pressure the generals to make any concessions that could end Myanmar’s violent struggle.
Thaksin claimed to Thai media that he met with Min Aung Hlaing during the BIMSTEC summit and urged him to engage in peace talks with resistance forces. He has said he met separately with ethnic minority groups engaged in fighting against the military.
Critics of the military government said Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Bangkok is not aimed at ensuring that aid is delivered based on actual needs.
“Rather than supporting the people of Myanmar, these actions risk legitimizing the illegal military coup and reinforcing the regime responsible for their suffering. Therefore, we firmly object to any such decisions,” said a joint statement Wednesday by the shadow National Unity Government, the country’s leading resistance group, and other groups battling the military government.
Opponents of the army accuse it of weaponizing aid, and say foreign humanitarian assistance should be delivered outside military channels.
Myanmar frees around 4,900 prisoners including some political detainees
The head of Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to around 4,900 prisoners to mark the country’s traditional new year, state-run media reported Thursday, and an independent watchdog said they included at least 22 political detainees.
At least 19 buses with prisoners aboard left Yangon’s Insein prison and were welcomed outside the gate by excited family members and friends who had been waiting since early morning.
The Political Prisoners Network — Myanmar, an independent watchdog group that records violations of human rights in Myanmar’s prisons, said in a statement that by its initial count, 22 political prisoners had been freed.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling military council, pardoned 4,893 prisoners, MRTV reported. Thirteen foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar, it said in a separate statement.
Other prisoners received reduced sentences, except for those convicted of serious charges such as murder and rape, or those jailed on charges under various other security acts.
If the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence, according to the terms of their release. Mass amnesties on the holiday are not unusual in Myanmar.
Myanmar has been under military rule since Feb. 1, 2021, when its army ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. The takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle. The country is now in civil war.
Some 22,197 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Friday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts.
Many political detainees had been held on a charge of incitement, a catch-all offense widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison.
Among those imprisoned for incitement who were freed Thursday was the film director who works under the name of Steel and is also known as Dwe Myittar. He was arrested in March 2023 and had been held in Insein Prison.
This year’s celebrations of Thingyan, the new year’s holiday, were more reserved than usual due to a nationwide grieving period following a devastating March 28 earthquake that killed about 3,725 people and leveled structures from new condos to ancient pagodas.
In a new year’s speech, Min Aung Hlaing said his government will carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation measures in the quake-affected areas as quickly as possible. He also reaffirmed plans to hold a general election by the end of the year and called on opposition groups fighting the army to resolve the conflicts in political ways.
During the holiday, the violent struggle between the army and pro-democracy forces continued with reports of clashes in the countryside but the number of casualties was unclear.
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