A group of Myanmar pro-junta individuals, including two well-known politicians, lobbied Japanese parliamentarians to support the regime’s planned election during a trip to the country earlier this month, an inside source told Myanmar Now.
Sandar Min, an ousted member of the former ruling National League for Democracy (NLD); Aye Maung, chair of the Arakan Front Party; and Kyaw Myo Min, who runs the pro-army news outlet Neo Politics, met with two opposition lawmakers in Tokyo on September 19, according to the source, who did not disclose the identities of the Japanese MPs.
The individual said that the meeting was arranged by the non-profit Japan-Myanmar Exchange Promotion Association. Two representatives of the organisation, Than Naing and Yuki Takaichi, were also reportedly present at the meeting. The source added that the Japanese lawmakers were initially told that a former NLD member had requested a meeting to discuss Myanmar issues.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the elected civilian government headed by the NLD administration was ousted in a military coup in February 2021 under the pretext that electoral fraud had been perpetrated during the previous year’s polls. The junta continues to struggle to quell the nationwide armed resistance movement triggered by its violent crackdowns on peaceful protests in the wake of its seizure of power.
The source said that the trio told the Japanese parliamentarians that the National Unity Government (NUG)—formed with the mandate of NLD lawmakers who were not able to take their seats after the coup—and its armed wing, the People’s Defence Force (PDF), were responsible for the country’s ongoing crisis.
During the meeting, they were said to have handed the MPs a brochure published by the junta’s information ministry, titled “Terrorist Acts, Casualties, Destructive and Disruptive Activities and Arms and Ammunition Seized.” It was printed in March 2023 and the incidents included reportedly took place between February 2021 and January 2023 and were “compiled and recorded by the editorial team” of the ministry’s information and public relations department.
All three members of the Myanmar delegation have ties to the military. Sandar Min, though a former political prisoner, became a controversial figure after the coup due to her engagement with the regime in defiance of her party’s position. The NLD expelled her and three other party members in March, saying in a statement that they had misused the party’s name and acted against its policies.
Aye Maung, a Rakhine nationalist leader, also registered his political party with the junta’s election commission earlier this year to compete in an army-organised vote.
The third individual, Kyaw Myo Min, is a pro-army online personality who broadcasts talks lobbying for the junta on his platform.
Aye Maung told Myanmar Now by phone on Wednesday that it was true that he had met with Japanese MPs, calling them “old friends” he had met during previous visits to Japan as an MP. However, he said that the meeting last week was merely to seek humanitarian aid for the victims of Cyclone Mocha, which hit Rakhine State in May.
According to Myanmar Now’s source, however, there was no mention of the impact of Mocha or other humanitarian issues during the meeting, which focussed mainly on blaming the resistance for Myanmar’s ongoing unrest. The source said the delegation even went so far as to claim that massacres carried out since the coup were perpetrated by junta opponents, rather than by regime forces, as generally reported.
The regime denied international relief agencies access to devastated areas of western and northern Myanmar after the cyclone and accused critics of its stance of undermining the country’s sovereignty. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in the disaster.
Aye Maung said that the Japanese MPs also asked him about current issues in the country and he replied that the upcoming polls would be an answer to Myanmar’s political crisis.
“What happens next for Myanmar? Now we have the constitutional crisis. How do we resolve this? An election is an answer. There will need to be inclusive negotiations and discussions on the Constitution matter to resolve the whole political crisis,” he explained.
However, the politician refused to comment on the delegation’s accusations that NUG and PDF are responsible for “terrorist acts.”
Neither Takaichi of the Japan-Myanmar Exchange Promotion Association nor Sandar Min were available for comment on Wednesday regarding the meeting in Tokyo.
According to a Japanese government registry of non-profit organisations, the association was established in 2008 to promote exchange between Myanmar and Japan, including through education and social welfare activities. Its board members include Keiichiro Fuji, who appears to have a long history of engagement with the military regime that was in power in Myanmar at the time of the group’s founding.
Since the coup, the Japanese government has not publicly stated its position on the possibility of a general election in Myanmar. In April, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called on Japan to “clearly and consistently renounce the junta’s plan to stage fraudulent national elections as a means of legitimising itself,” according to a statement released at the time.
Andrews reported that foreign ministry official told him that “Japan’s view is that elections held under current conditions, without the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, would create further resentment against the military and make a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Myanmar more difficult.”
“The three apparently came to Japan to spread the false narrative that the military is ultimately not responsible for Myanmar’s human rights crisis, which can be easily dismissed by looking at credible reports of ongoing human rights abuses by the military perpetrated before and after the 2021 military coup,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch.
“The Japanese government should be clear that it will not endorse any sort of election under the current conditions as it will simply reinforce the junta’s impunity,” he added.
