FREE ASEAN-FREE MYANMAR-FREE Aung San Suu Kyi | Myanmar expels East Timor’s diplomat in retaliation for supporting opposition forces

.The embassy of East Timor in Yangon, Myanmar. PHOTO: AFP

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BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s military-installed government has ordered East Timor’s senior diplomat to leave the country in retaliation for the East Timorese government holding meetings with Myanmar’s main opposition organisation, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The statement said East Timor has conducted engagements with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which views itself as the country’s legitimate administration after the military seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021.

The National Unity Government also serves as an umbrella organisation for opponents of military rule.

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The Foreign Ministry said it informed the charge d’affaires of the East Timor Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, on Friday to leave the country no later than September 1.

The charge d’affaires is believed to be the first foreign diplomat expelled from Myanmar since the army takeover. Many countries have downgraded their relations with Myanmar and left behind the number two diplomat in place of ambassadors.

The military takeover was met with massive public opposition, which security forces quashed with deadly force, in turn triggering widespread armed resistance as the country slipped into what some United Nations (UN) experts characterise as a civil war.

More than 4,000 civilians have been killed by security forces and nearly 20,000 are imprisoned, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which keeps tallies of casualties and arrests linked to repression by the military.

East Timor, Asia’s youngest nation, has vocally criticised Myanmar’s military rulers and shown support for the opposition.

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