YANGON: The United Nations said on Tuesday an estimated 100,000 people had been displaced in Myanmar's Kayah State by recent violence, including "indiscriminate attacks by security forces" against civilian areas.
"The United Nations in Myanmar is concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation," the United Nations in Myanmar said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar state media reported on Tuesday that the junta's foreign minister had defended its plan for restoring democracy, after a meeting at which Southeast Asian counterparts pressed the army to implement a regional agreement meant to end turmoil.
The junta has paid little heed to demands from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to respect a "consensus" agreed in late April to end violence and hold political talks with its opponents.
Southeast foreign ministers expressed disappointment at the meeting in China on Monday at the "very slow" progress made by Myanmar on its proposal for ending the turmoil since the army overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
State media cited junta-appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin as telling the Asean-China foreign ministers' meeting that the military had made progress on its own five-step roadmap for the country unveiled after its coup.
"The minister apprised the meeting that the only way to ensure the democratic system that is disciplined and genuine was through the five-point future programme that was declared in February," the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
The minister had said that most of these points had been met including preventative Covid-19 measures and setting up a new election commission to into alleged fraud during a November election swept by Suu Kyi's party, the paper said.
The military defended its seizure of power after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy saying the old election commission had ignored its complaints of fraud. - Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
