By Simon Lewis
(Reuters) – United Nations Special Envoy Julie Bishop visited Myanmar’s capital and met with the head of the country’s military junta, she told a U.N. meeting on Tuesday, adding that actors in Myanmar had to move past what she called a “zero-sum mentality” to move toward a resolution of the Southeast Asian country’s grinding conflict.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the army chief Min Aung Hlaing led a coup and arrested members of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s on Feb. 1, 2021.
Bishop, a former Australian foreign minister appointed to the Myanmar role in April, said any pathway to reconciliation required an end to violence, accountability and access for the U.N. and aid groups.
The U.N. says more than 3.1 million people have been displaced by the ensuing civil war between the military and a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and an armed resistance movement spawned out of the junta’s bloody crackdown on anti-coup protests.
“I have visited Naypyitaw and met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and I will return,” Bishop said of the previously undisclosed visit, without giving more details of the meeting.
It was unclear when the meeting took place.
Bishop said she had also met with Suu Kyi’s party, the shadow National Unity Government, and ethnic armed organizations, among others, and remained “impartial in my engagement with all stakeholders.”
“I aim to understand the different and often conflicting perspectives so that through my role I can encourage greater coordination with regional and global efforts to facilitate an agreed solution,” Bishop said.
“Myanmar actors must move beyond the current zero-sum mentality. There can be little progress on addressing the needs of the people while armed conflict continues across the country.”
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Alistair Bell)
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