UN envoy says she met Myanmar army chief, calls for end to violence

30/10/2024 6:22

        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.