(Simion Lewis’s article from the REUTERS on 30 October 2024.)
UN envoy says she met Myanmar army chief, calls for
end to violence: United Nations Special Envoy Julie Bishop visited Myanmar's
capital and met with the head of the country's military junta, she told a U.N.
meeting on Tuesday, adding that actors in Myanmar had to move past what she
called a "zero-sum mentality" to move toward a resolution of the
Southeast Asian country's grinding conflict.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the army chief Min
Aung Hlaing led a coup and arrested members of an elected government led by
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's on Feb. 1, 2021. Bishop, a former Australian
foreign minister appointed to the Myanmar role in April, said any pathway to
reconciliation required an end to violence, accountability and access for the
U.N. and aid groups.
The U.N. says more than 3.1 million people have been displaced by the ensuing civil war between the military and a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and an armed resistance movement spawned out of the junta's bloody crackdown on anti-coup protests. "I have visited Naypyitaw and met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and I will return," Bishop said of the previously undisclosed visit, without giving more details of the meeting.
It was unclear when the meeting took place. Bishop
said she had also met with Suu Kyi's party, the shadow National Unity
Government, and ethnic armed organizations, among others, and remained
"impartial in my engagement with all stakeholders."
That's according to two sources who spoke to
Reuters that say it would start with a 60-day ceasefire. "I aim to
understand the different and often conflicting perspectives so that through my
role I can encourage greater coordination with regional and global efforts to
facilitate an agreed solution," Bishop said. "Myanmar actors must
move beyond the current zero-sum mentality. There can be little progress on
addressing the needs of the people while armed conflict continues across the
country."
