Myanmar junta chief blasts Asean for exclusion

Bloomberg

Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing blasted other Southeast Asian countries for demanding that his military end worsening violence at home, after he was excluded from a big ticket regional summit later this month over civil strife.
Allies of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi were driving the repeated calls, the coup leader said on state-broadcaster MRTV on Monday. He added that the regime had agreed to end violence in the conflict-torn country months ago but had been prevented from doing so by “more acts of violence driven by the incitement of terrorist groups.”
“We haven’t seen anyone caring about or trying to stop such destructive acts,” he said. “They keep making demands to us and we ourselves have to deal with such acts. I’d like to say that Asean needs to work on this.”
Top regional diplomats earlier this month agreed to exclude Min Aung Hlaing from the meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders on October 26-28 in Brunei — a rare and decisive move to hold the regime accountable for the worsening domestic situation since it seized the government in a coup back in February.