Akbayan condemns Myanmar junta's dissolution of opposition parties
MANILA, Philippines — Akbayan on Wednesday condemned the dissolution by the military junta in Myanmar of the National League of Democracy and other opposition political parties as it joined calls from within the country for international pressure on the unelected government there.
The party also called on the US to increase aid to more than 100,000 Myanmar people who have fled to border towns in Thailand.
Myanmar's military junta has dissolved 40 political parties and groups for not being registered under a new Political Party Registration Law. Rights monitor Human Rights Watch has called the law, which the junta said is meant to facilitate announced elections, has provisions that "appear intended to indefinitely delay, rather than facilitate, Myanmar's return to civilian democratic rule."
In a statement, Akbayan said: "This is not only an attack on democracy. It is a gross violation of the rights people of Myanmar. Instead of protecting their freedoms, the military has stripped them of their voice, killed innocent lives, and corrupted the institutions that are meant to serve the will of the people."
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Citing demands made by pro-democracy party Democratic Party for a New Society, Akbayan called for more pressure on the junta, including "bold actions such as freezing the bank accounts of junta members" and imposing sanctions on sources of the junta's weapons.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations in February urged Myanmar to implement to implement a five-point peace plan agreed two years ago to create a path towards ending the country's political crisis, according to a report by AFP.
The junta remains an ASEAN member but the bloc barred it from top-level summits over its failure to implement the plan that aims to achieve peace between the military and Myanmar's anti-coup movement.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. last November called on Myanmar to follow and implement the five-point consensus on the coup that ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and noted the “lack of development” in the country’s situation in the past two years.
"In the way that the Philippines has also demonstrated to great effect, opposition parties can charge the junta with crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court," Akbayan also said, referring to an ongoing ICC investigation that the Philippine government has rejected for what it says is lack of jurisdiction.
"Akbayan Party also calls on the US Biden administration to maximize the assistance provisions in the BURMA Act. They can provide food supplies, livelihood support and medical equipment and supplies to more than 100,000 political refugees who have fled Myanmar for the Thai border towns," the statement read.
"Furthermore, we call for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners detained by the junta. We further call for an immediate end to the senseless violence that will scar the nation for years to come."
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