21 January 2022
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Subject: US-ASEAN Summit Should Work to Bring Genuine Democracy to Myanmar and Cambodia
Dear President Biden,
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and advocates for Myanmar and Cambodia, strongly urge your administration to exclude the Myanmar military junta from the upcoming in-person US-ASEAN summit and invite the National Unity Government as the government of Myanmar instead.
We wish to state our concern regarding Mr. Hun Sen’s participation in the summit given his lack of legitimacy as the democratically elected Prime Minister of Cambodia. Mr. Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, is one of the longest ruling dictators in the world. He has ruled over Cambodia with impunity for 42 years, undoing overnight, a UN sponsored election and rehabilitation effort, through the threat of an armed secession in 1993, a violent coup d’état in 1997 and has clung to power through rigged elections, many constitutional coups (the last one in 2017), repression and elimination of any form of opposition. His “Peace” was obtained by silencing, gagging, imprisoning, and assassinating his dissenters.
At the summit, we urge you to discuss Cambodia’s challenges in its role as ASEAN’s Chair and its responsibilities in leading the implementation of the five-point consensus to address the crisis in Myanmar, and also to confront Cambodia’s own human rights violations.
Mr. Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar on January 7, 2022, is a brazen attempt by these two coup leaders to hijack ASEAN for their own authoritarian purposes and undermine the Myanmar peoples' fight for democracy and human rights.
Both Mr. Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing have abandoned the rule of law and have used their kangaroo courts as a weapon of oppression to pass harsh sentences on political opponents. Immediately after Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to an additional four years of imprisonment. She is already serving a two-year sentence and the accumulated prison time of all the charges could exceed a hundred years. All the cabinet members who were arrested together with her have been given long prison sentences. All members of the opposition which includes journalists, protesters and civil disobedience leaders have been treated the same.
Mr. Hun Sen is using Myanmar to deflect his own international criticism, which has intensified in recent years with the court dissolution of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party, which enabled Hun Sen’s long ruling Cambodian People’s Party to win every seat contested at the elections in 2018. Since then, hundreds of CNRP supporters have been assassinated, assaulted, arrested, and imprisoned alongside journalists, environmentalists, labor, and civil society activists. The main opposition has been effectively driven into exile, never to return until he or his successors are no longer in power. Hun Sen wants to be left alone to continue his dictatorial rule and use Myanmar as the foil.
Mr. Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar is a violation of the ASEAN Charter, which requires a majority vote, and proper coordination prior to his visit. However, as he has been causally conducting himself as a leader who disregards the Charter and rule of laws, we are concerned that he might violate the charter further by misinterpreting the five-point consensus on Myanmar and favoring the Myanmar Military Junta. The ASEAN charter requires Mr. Hun Sen to follow the guidance of the Secretary-General, specifically with respect to an interpretation of the consensus.
Mr. Hun Sen’s trip to Myanmar has proven to be a complete failure as his January 7th, 2022, joint statement of an extension of a cease-fire agreement with ethnic groups until the end of 2022 with the Junta proved to be totally untrue. The country was riddled with widespread fighting as of January 8th, and on January 9th according to locals, the junta immediately launched a mass airstrike against Karenni National Defense Force in the outskirts of Loikaw and Demoso Township of Kayah State. Their announced ceasefire was non-existent.
According to the Association for Assistance of Political Prisoners daily report at the time of writing, the Myanmar military junta, with its false promises of ceasefire, has killed at least 1,488 people, with a fatality number that is likely much higher, detained at least 11,651 people, and displaced nearly 300,000 people since its attempted coup on February 1, 2021. Since 15 December, the junta has started shelling using heavy weaponry in Karen State and later with the use of airstrikes - jets bombing the area indiscriminately, displacing more than 10,000 civilians, half of whom fled to Thailand for refuge. The terrorist junta has also carried out systematic acts of crimes against humanity across Myanmar, one of which was a grisly massacre of at least 35 civilians in Karenni State on Christmas eve. We thank Secretary Blinken for publicly condemning this heinous act.
Despite these gross acts of violence, Hun Sen nonetheless met with the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and has publicly stated that he believes Myanmar military representatives should attend ASEAN meetings. Given Hun Sen’s recent actions and comments, we believe that Hun Sen will attempt to persuade ASEAN and the US to invite the Myanmar military junta to the upcoming ASEAN-US summit, despite the ASEAN’s past decision to exclude the junta’s leaders from its summits.
In line with the 2022 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act of 2022) which was signed into law by you in December 27, 2021, your administration is required to “[deny] legitimacy and resources to the military junta” and to instead “support and legitimize the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar”. Inviting and/or allowing the illegitimate military junta’s representative to attend the US-ASEAN summit, where state leaders are convening, would be lending the military junta the legitimacy it is desperately seeking. We trust that the administration will abide by the NDAA and disregard Hun Sen’s likely pressure to include the Myanmar junta and instead invite a representative of the National Unity Government in accordance with the NDAA.
Mr. Hun Sen is also trying to steer international humanitarian assistance into the junta’s hands. He is claiming that the provision of humanitarian assistance needs a proper distribution mechanism, underlining that assistance has arrived in Myanmar, but has not been distributed yet. He did not mention the fact that the junta is blocking the distribution to starve the opposition out. Mr. Hun Sen’s intent is to use humanitarian aid to Myanmar as a political strategy by the Myanmar military to block the distribution from reaching the opposition while enriching themselves.
Mr. Hun Sen also called on Japan to be part of foreign donors for this process and invited a former Japanese diplomat to be an advisor to the ASEAN Chair on Myanmar. The NDAA 2022 states the United States policy as to not support the recognition of, or dealing with, the State Administration Council, or any successor entity controlled by the military, as the government of Myanmar for the purpose of the provision of any loan or financial assistance by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, or the Asian Development Bank, except for humanitarian assistance channeled through an implementing agency not controlled by the Burmese military. Hun Sen is trying his best to bypass this US policy.
In line with the commitments made at the Summit for Democracy that the US recently hosted, together we urge you to call for genuine democracy in Cambodia and Myanmar, and to refuse legitimacy to regimes that entered and hold on to power through sheer violence and murder of the people.
With regards to Cambodia, we urge the United States to:
1- provide support and backing for the existing, people’s based, independent, fact-finding Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, created by the people and civil society, to shine the spotlight on Hun Sen’s 37 years of egregious, widespread democracy and human rights violations and to present this information to decision makers and policy makers such as you, so that you can take the appropriate remedial actions that will bring meaningful and systemic changes to Cambodia. An on-line campaign to end impunity has generated over 112,000 signatures, the majority of which, came from inside Cambodia.
2- declare ahead of time that the US will not recognize the 2022 commune and 2023 parliamentarian Cambodian elections, since they have no chance of fitting the definition of free and fair elections. The US can always change that decision should there be proof to the contrary after the elections.
With regards to Myanmar, we urge the United States to:
1-invite the National Unity Government to the upcoming US-ASEAN summit, the only legitimate representative of the Myanmar people
2- reject the terrorist military junta’s announced plan of elections in 2023 – just as the people of Myanmar have been defiantly and categorically rejecting its legitimacy after its bloody coup attempt for almost one year.
With regards to Cambodia and Myanmar, we urge the United States to:
1- Take the lead and emphasize that promotion of democracy, respect for human rights are not only part of the ASEAN charter but are the requirements for admission to ASEAN, to the UN and especially, for doing business with the US. Thus, when it comes to human rights abuses, the non-interference principle is subordinate to international human rights laws and treaties.
2- Give the opposition in the non-democratic countries of ASEAN, which includes the Cambodian National Rescue Party, the opportunity to present their vision towards democracy, human rights, and rule of law by holding a parallel summit in Washington, DC at the same time as the ASEAN-US summit.
3--Impose a military arms embargo on the Junta and the Hun Sen army, especially curtail their electronic surveillance and communications capabilities and place sanctions on any company, financial institution or country which help the Junta and the Hun Sen army evade economic sanctions and arms embargo.
Mr. President, we have confidence that under your administration’s leadership, the world community and ASEAN will come to the aid of the people to stop the dictators’ reign of impunity, find lasting freedom, justice, democracy, and the rule of law for Cambodia and Myanmar.
We thank you for your attention and consideration to this matter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
1) Action Committee for Democracy Development, Myanmar
2) Afghan Coalition, USA
3) Anti Dictatorship in Burma - DC Metro Area, USA
4) ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Asia
5) Boston Free Burma, USA
6) Burma Refugee Families & Newcomers, USA
7) Burmese Community Development Collaboration, USA
8) Burmese American Millennials, USA
9) Cambodia Border Institute (CBI), USA
10) Cambodia National Rescue Party, USA
11) Cambodian Alliance for the Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia (CAPPAC), Global
12) Cambodian American Community of Oregon, USA
13) Cambodian Americans and Friends for Democracy and Human Rights Advocates, USA
14) Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy (CAHRAD), USA
15) Cambodian Alliance for Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia (CAPPAC), Australia
16) Cambodian Association of Victoria (CAV)
17) Campaign for a New Myanmar, USA
18) Chin Leaders, USA
19) Committee for Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia-Minnesota (CPPAC-MN), USA
20) Core Actions Support for Federal Democratic Burma, USA
21) Democracy Supporters Association (DSA), USA
22) East Bay Refugee and Immigrant Forum, USA
23) Free Myanmar, USA
24) Foundation of Khmer Samaki, USA
25) Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD), Global
26) Humanitarian and Development Foundation for Myanmar (HDFM), USA
27) International Campaign for the Rohingya, USA
28) Khmer Alliance Foundation (KAF), USA
29) Khmer Association of Hampton Road Virginia (KAHRV), USA
30) Khmer Kampuchea Krom Buddhist Temple, USA
31) Khmer People Network for Cambodia (KPNC), USA
32) Khmer Post, USA
33) Khmer Unity for Cambodia, USA
34) LA2M Los Angeles Myanmar Movement, USA
35) Ligue Cambodgienne des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (LCDHC), France
36) Meboun Foundation, USA
37) Myanmar American Humanitarian Aid Association (MAHAA), USA
38) Myanmar Queer Straight Alliance, USA
39) No Business With Genocide, USA
40) Oasis Legal Services, USA
41) Our Mutual National Interests International (OMNI International), USA
42) Overseas Khmer Summit (OKS), USA
43) Pro Democracy for Cambodia/Pro démocratie pour le Cambodge, Canada
44) Refugee and Immigrant Transition, USA
45) Save Myanmar, USA
46) Save Myanmar San Francisco, USA
47) Support the Democracy Movement in Burma, USA
48) World Khmer Diaspora Network-EU, France
Cc: Secretary of State
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations