AFP urges ASEAN envoy to mediate peace talks between regime and Arakan Army

By DMG 02 Jul 2022

DMG Newsroom
2 July 2022, Sittwe

The Arakan Front Party (AFP) has called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy to Myanmar to mediate peace talks between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA).

In a statement on Saturday, the party said it expects that the ASEAN special envoy Prak Sokhonn, who is also Cambodia’s foreign minister, will be able to bring the AA and military around the table because political changes in Arakan State have impacts on the entire country.

“[A political dialogue between the military and the AA] will contribute to restoring stability in Myanmar,” read the AFP statement.

The two sides will stop arresting each other’s personnel only when they meet around a table, continues the statement, urging the ASEAN special envoy to mediate.

Prak Sokhonn arrived in Naypyidaw on June 29 for his second visit to Myanmar in his capacity as special envoy. He met with seven political parties on Saturday, including the AFP and the Arakan National Party.

In its letter to the special envoy, the AFP suggested that the military-drafted 2008 Constitution must be scrapped and a new constitution be adopted to resolve Myanmar’s ongoing political crisis. It also called for all-inclusion in the peace process as major ethnic armed organisations are fighting the regime and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has excluded the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) and its affiliated People’s Defence Force, a network of anti-regime militias, from peace talks.

Military tensions have been rising in Arakan State for several weeks, with the Myanmar military and the AA abducting each other’s personnel. The AA seized at least 14 junta personnel in Kyauktaw, Sittwe, Mrauk-U and Ponnagyun townships, and the Myanmar military in response has detained more than 40 residents in those townships.