Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States have expressed concern over the Myanmar military’s dissolution of the country’s former ruling party, warning the move could bring further instability to the violence-wracked country.
The statements of concern on Wednesday came a day after the Myanmar military disbanded Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and 39 other parties over their failure to meet a deadline to register for an election that is set to extend the army’s grip on power.
No date has been set for the election.
The NLD has repeatedly ruled out running in the poll, calling it illegitimate.
“We are seriously concerned that the exclusion of the NLD from the political process will make it even more difficult to improve the situation,” Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Japan strongly urges Myanmar to immediately release NLD officials, including Suu Kyi, and to show a path toward a peaceful resolution of the issue in a manner that includes all parties concerned.”
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military could not immediately be reached for comment. The military regime’s leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on Monday urged international critics to get behind his efforts to restore democracy.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021, upending a decade of tentative democracy.
Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 3,000 people in a bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters, giving rise to an armed struggle against military rule. More than a million people have been displaced by fighting, according to the United Nations.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, who the military arrested during the coup, is serving a 33-year term in prison after being convicted on various charges and dozens of her NLD allies are also in jail or have fled.
