Illustration by Rene Elevera
As Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sat close to him, the UN secretary general spoke out on the crisis affecting the displaced Rohingya Muslim minority in her country’s Rakhine state.
“I cannot hide my deep concern with the dramatic movement of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh,” he said as Suu Kyi looked mostly at the wall screen showing the UN leader.
It was the elephant in the room, as was the South China Sea dispute.
In the joint statement they issued on the two-day summit, the Southeast Asian leaders chose to keep mum on the crisis.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking on behalf of fellow heads of state of Asean, skirted any expression of alarm over serious human rights concerns in the region, including the alleged ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar’s military.