Special Envoy to Restive Myanmar Draws Mixed Reception
Voice of America
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.People walk past the entrance of the International Medical Corps American field hospital ahead of its evacuation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Displaced Palestinians sit alongside their belongings in a van driving in al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 2, 2024. People talk in front of a sign referring to hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 2, 2024. Palestinians use a path lined with destroyed buildings al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 2, 2024.
This handout photo released on June 2, 2024 shows South Korean military officers check unidentified objects believed to be North Korean trash from balloons that crossed the inter-Korea border, on a street in Seoul. In this photo provided by Jeonbuk Fire Headquarters, balloons with trash presumably sent by North Korea, hang on electric wires as South Korean army soldiers stand guard in Muju, South Korea, May 29, 2024.
A man takes a photograph of the election results at the National Results Operation Centre of the IEC in Midrand, South Africa, June 2, 2024. African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, briefs the media on results of the elections at the Results Operation Centre in Midland, Johannesburg, June 2, 2024.
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