Myanmar and Russia jointly organized the 12th ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism Meeting-EWG on CT Meeting on 21 and 22 December. The meeting was chaired by Myanmar through videoconferencing.
The meeting was attended by Joint-Chairmen of ADMM-Plus WEG-CT Deputy Chief of Armed Forces Training Maj-Gen Aung Myo Thant and Maj-Gen Grigory Turin of Russian Armed Forces, and representatives from ASEAN and its dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the US and officials from the ASEAN Secretariat.
At the meeting, the Joint-Chairmen addressed the meeting and officials from the member countries read and discussed papers on counter-terrorism. Myanmar discussed the topic “The terrorist attacks, threatening national security in Myanmar”, highlighting the threats to the national security, including armed ethnic conflicts, drug issues and the terrorist activities of NUG and PDF, electoral fraud which led to the state of emergency declared by Tatmadaw to maintain the State affairs, efforts of Tatmadaw in various ways to peacefully find a solution on vote-rigging, the NLD government’s multiple rejections on the discussion and its intent to form a new government with controversial election results. There had been a gradual transition from peaceful protests into violence after 1 February 2021 and only then did security forces maintain the situation with minimum force, the official continued.
He added the formation of CRPH, NUG and PDF terrorist groups which targeted civilians, brutal killings perpetrated by their members after accusing innocent civilians as “traitors” under the opinion of “You are the enemy if you are different”. They especially killed dutiful civil servants such as school teachers and township medical officers who were conducting COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment activities, he clarified with evidence of the involvement by PDF terrorists and extremist NLD supporters.
The anti-government media has biased in covering terrorist acts of PDFs to keep the international community out of the public eye and to draw attention to them, he said. In addition, political-minded groups in Myanmar are fabricating false stories about what is happening in Myanmar with the help of media technology and financial support, and the misrepresentation of false information had led to political narratives and acts as a weapon of post-truth politics, he elaborated.
Myanmar, as a sovereign nation, has been complying with its anti-terrorism laws and has informed global and regional anti-terrorism organizations, including INTERPOL. He also highlighted the fact that the encouragement of some countries in the world to these terrorist groups is the act of spurring terrorism. He said he couldn’t understand why some powerful democratic nations are finding it difficult to name CRPH, NUG and PDF as terrorist groups, even though they are aware of their acts of terrorism. He also called on the international community for cooperation to end acts of terrorism that are based on political gain, in order to ensure regional stability.
Russia discussed under the topic “Threats to the national security of the Russian Federation emanating from the activities of international terrorist organizations, adding the neighbouring countries of the country which are threatening the national security of Russia, terrorism and terrorist organizations in the middle east. Afterwards, members of the ASEAN and dialogue partners gave their opinions on the papers.
Along with the Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Training from Myanmar, Director General of the Ministry of Defence U Zaw Win Naing, senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army) attended the meeting. Myanmar and Russia have been the Joint-Chairs of the ADMM-Plus EWG on CT from 2021 until 2023. — MNA
