Jakarta: On Wednesday, the ASEAN chairman Indonesia was urged to take the lead in resolving the Myanmar crisis by the UN's special rapporteur on human rights, who also urged the regional group to hold Myanmar's ruling junta accountable for serious human rights abuses.
Tom Andrews, the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, visited Indonesia on a mission to meet with government and ASEAN representatives as well as Rohingya refugees in the province of Aceh.
According to Andrews, Indonesia is in a position to be crucial in helping to resolve this crisis. "I came to Indonesia because the human rights situation in Myanmar is dire and getting worse, and because I believe that Indonesia is positioned to play a critical role in the resolution of this crisis," he told reporters in Jakarta.
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According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nongovernmental organisation that keeps track of killings and arrests, over 3,600 people have been killed by security forces since the junta came to power in February 2021, and 19,000 more have been imprisoned.
"I'm concerned that the escalating crisis in Myanmar has lost much of the world's attention and that some governments are starting to believe that the junta's authoritarianism is unavoidable. This story is precisely what the junta needs and wants to win, he said.
Andrews emphasised Indonesia's "importance in the region and the world" as this year's ASEAN chair, a participant in the Group of 20 largest economies, and Southeast Asia's most populous nation and largest economy.
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"ASEAN must take into account ways to hold the junta accountable for its egregious abuses of human rights and blatant disregard for the Five-Point Consensus' implementation," Andrews said.
"Even if ASEAN remains deadlocked, I urge Indonesia to engage in coordinated actions that will isolate and weaken the junta's ability to attack the people of Myanmar," the statement continued.
In April 2021, ASEAN and Myanmar's top general forged the Five-Point Consensus plan, also known as the 5PC. It demanded that the violence in Myanmar end right away and called for negotiations between rival parties in order to find a peaceful resolution.
Weeks after Indonesian President Joko Widodo warned ASEAN leaders that the bloc's credibility was at risk, Andrews made his call.
The UN special rapporteur's journey included meetings with Rohingya refugees who had fled persecution in Myanmar. After perilous sea voyages that left them stranded on boats in the Indian Ocean for weeks, hundreds of people ended up in Indonesia last year.
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"Indonesia is in a strong position to act as a leader — in the OIC, ASEAN and beyond — to advocate for durable solutions to the crisis facing the Rohingya," the official said.
"For the international community to reevaluate its current course of action or, in some cases, inaction and to forge a new path forward with and for those whose lives are at stake, it is literally a matter of life and death. This will require moral leadership, which Indonesia is well-positioned to provide for the region and the entire world, according to Andrews.