The National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar takes note of the announcement that the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, will travel to Myanmar.

The reported focus of Special Envoy’s visit will be to advance the UN Security Council’s calls for an immediate cessation of all forms of violence and for unimpeded humanitarian access, and to address ‘the deteriorating situation and immediate concerns as well as other priority areas of her mandate’. ¹

Yet on the same day that the visit was announced, the illegal military junta added six years to the political imprisonment of State Counsellor H.E. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who continues to be held in solitary confinement despite repeated condemnation by the UN Security Council and the General Assembly.

There is no coincidence in this timing. It is deliberate act of junta aggression against the UN – a live threat that any attempt by the Special Envoy to engage with Myanmar’s democratically-elected leaders and its legitimate Government will result in swift reprisals.

It also follows the terrorist junta’s extrajudicial execution of four democracy activists before the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 3 August 2022 and despite the ASEAN Chair’s public plea.

Through murder and deception, the junta is attempting to hold the international community hostage. Not only has each ASEAN and UN entreaty been rebuffed, the rejections have been metered out in escalating atrocities.

The Special Envoy’s visit must be directed at ending the junta’s violence, its weaponisation of aid, its persecution of political prisoners, and its impunity. Intensified efforts must also target the multiple junta-induced crises destabilising the region’s peace and security. Anything short of this would be an appeasement of war criminals. The National Unity Government remains a committed and dependable partner to the Special Envoy. Ms. Heyzer’s consultations must also include Myanmar’s Ethnic Resistance Organizations