BANGKOK — When the leader of Myanmar’s milit regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, attended a Bay of Bengal regional summit in Bangkok earlier this month, it marked a diplomatic breakthrough. It was his first appearance at a meeting in a Southeast Asian capital since shortly after he seized power from the democratically elected government in Febru 2021.
But credible reports that Min Aung Hlaing has reneged on his promise to halt offensive milit operations in the country’s ongoing civil war to facilitate humanitarian aid to to areas affected by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake at the end of March that killed at least 3,500 are tarnishing his newly acquired diplomatic kudos. Aerial attacks on villages in quake-damaged regions have killed dozens of people, according to rights campaigners.
