Moscow strongly condemns violence against participants in peaceful protests in Myanmar, calls on all parties to dialogue, it is necessary to prevent interference in the internal affairs of this country, Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Russian Foreign Ministry Pyotr Ilyichev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“The UN Security Council is closely following developments in Myanmar. The Security Council’s position is clearly formulated in a statement by the President of the Council on March 10 this year. It strongly condemns violence against participants in peaceful protests, emphasizes the need to preserve democratic institutions, and calls for a peaceful dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar. Russia fully shares this balanced position”, – Ilyichev said.
According to him, Moscow is confident that “in order to avoid further escalation, the UN Security Council should continue to insist on establishing a dialogue between all interested parties”.
“To this end, we advocate greater involvement of the regionals, primarily ASEAN. We drew attention to the actively discussed initiative of the ASEAN members of convening an extraordinary summit to exchange views on the situation in Myanmar. We will wait for the results of the forum. It is important to help Myanmar get out of the current difficult period of its history with dignity”, – added the diplomat.
He also noted that “a sine qua non condition for the efforts undertaken should be consistent adherence to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”.
“The solution to the problems arising in the country must be found by the Myanmans themselves, and the role of the international community is to assist them in this matter”, – concluded Ilyichev.
It is too early to discuss the introduction of a UN peacekeeping mission in Myanmar because of the events in this country, said Pyotr Ilyichev, director of the department of international organizations of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“The issue of the need to introduce a peacekeeping contingent in Myanmar is now also premature to discuss”, – Ilyichev said.
According to him, Myanmar “is by no means the only and far from the first country where internal political conflicts arise in connection with national elections.”
“As we have seen, even states with older traditions of democracy, including those in the Western Hemisphere, are not fully insured against internal post-electoral shocks”, – Ilyichev said.
Myanmar’s armed forces toppled the civilian government and took power in the country on February 1, arresting civilian leaders. The military attributed their actions to the alleged massive falsification of the results of the 2020 general elections in favor of the then ruling party and the unwillingness of the civilian authorities to investigate it. Having come to power with the help of the constitutional mechanism of introducing a state of emergency, the leaders of the new military government promised to hold new elections in a year and transfer power to the party that won them. Later, a spokesman for the military authorities named another proposed date for the elections: within two years.
Massive protests against the military authorities are taking place every day in many cities in Myanmar. More than 70% of civil servants, including medical workers, have joined the campaign of civil disobedience to the authorities, leaving their jobs.