The Director-General of the EU Military Staff, Vice-Admiral Hervé Bléjean, spoke by telephone on Tuesday 9 March with Vice-Senior General Soe Win, Deputy Commander in Chief of the Myanmar military, to discuss the current situation in the country. It was the first contact with the Myanmar military since the coup that brought it to power on 1 February.
The aim of the call was to be able to discuss military to military as the Myanmar military does not appear to listen to civilian calls for appeasement. The topics covered are political.
“Vice-Admiral Bléjean urged the military authorities to immediately stop all violence and to exercise utmost restraint in dealing with protests, to avoid further casualties and respect international law”, the European External Action Service said in a statement. “Any further escalation must be avoided”, Mr Bléjean would have stressed, also recalling that the role of any military should be to protect the population.
According to the EEAS, the Director-General of the EU Military Staff also urged the military authorities to release the country’s democratically elected leaders, including State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and all other political detainees, “with a view to engaging in an inclusive political dialogue with all relevant stakeholders”.
It is important to restore stability and democracy with legitimate civilian rule in Myanmar, Mr Bléjean stressed. He also stressed the particular importance of inviting the UN Special Envoy, Christine Schraner Burgener, to visit Myanmar as soon as possible so that she can consult all parties concerned and facilitate dialogue.
The EU banned military training and cooperation with the Myanmar military in 2018 because of the repression of the Rohingyas (see EUROPE 11884/4, 12010/23). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)