Special Envoy to Restive Myanmar Draws Mixed Reception

BANGKOK - Myanmar’s shadow government says it welcomes the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ appointment of a special envoy to help resolve the country’s post-coup crisis even as some rights groups reject the choice and regional lawmakers raise concerns. 

ASEAN, a 10-nation bloc that includes Myanmar, or Burma, named Brunei’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof to the envoy role last week.  The appointment comes six months after Myanmar’s military toppled the country’s democratically elected government, touching off mass protests the junta has met with a bloody crackdown and hobbling efforts to beat back a raging COVD-19 outbreak. Ousted lawmakers, ethnic minority groups and leaders of a grassroots civil disobedience movement have joined forces under the banner of a National Unity Government to try to wrest control from the junta. The NUG’s spokesman and minister of international cooperation, Sasa, who goes by one name, welcomed Erywan’s appointment.