Myanmar groups urge ASEAN to reject junta rule

Hundreds of Myanmar civil society organisations have issued an urgent appeal to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), calling on the bloc to formally reject the country’s newly installed military-backed government.

In an open letter sent on Sunday, 201 groups including Progressive Voice and Justice for Myanmar urged ASEAN to bar regime representatives from high-level meetings, describing the administration as a façade born of a sham election. The polls, held between December and January, excluded more than 10.5 million voters, while another 11 million boycotted.

Turnout was less than half that recorded in the 2020 election, which the military later annulled.

“ASEAN must reject the legitimacy of the military-led façade government, the ‘parliament’ and the representatives emerging from it,” the letter stated.

The appeal also pressed ASEAN to cut regional supply chains of weapons and aviation fuel that sustain the junta’s air campaign. Since the 2021 coup, the regime has carried out nearly 9,800 airstrikes, killing at least 4,853 civilians and destroying more than 1,200 schools and religious sites, according to the groups.

Civil society leaders demanded that ASEAN engage instead with democratic actors, including the National Unity Government (NUG) and ethnic revolutionary organisations, to build a credible political process rooted in human rights and accountability. They also called for an immediate end to forced conscription, political detentions and ongoing violence.

The letter urged ASEAN to support international trials against junta figures, including in member states Timor-Leste and Indonesia, and to deliver humanitarian aid directly through the NUG, ethnic organisations and local communities. More than 3.7 million people are currently displaced inside Myanmar, while 12 million face acute food insecurity.

The groups warned ASEAN risked complicity if it failed to act decisively.

“ASEAN must choose—stand with the people of Myanmar—or risk complicity in the Myanmar military’s ongoing atrocity crimes,” they wrote.

The appeal comes as ruling generals, led by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, shed their uniforms earlier this month to front a pseudo-civilian government and parliament. Meanwhile, the military has intensified attacks in resistance-held areas, with at least 100 civilians killed and thousands forced to flee since March.

ASEAN’s current chair, the Philippines, is being urged to lead a principled, rights-based response to the crisis, as Myanmar’s conflict deepens and regional pressure mounts for a federal democratic future.

-2026-04-29