Cambodia hosts meeting on humanitarian assistance to Myanmar

By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have met in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, in a new effort to organize humanitarian assistance for strife-torn Myanmar. The meeting is part of an attempt to revive a consensus reached by ASEAN leaders last year on how to help ease the country’s violent political crisis that followed an army takeover. Myanmar agreed to the consensus but has made scant effort to implement it. Its stonewalling led fellow ASEAN members to block Myanmar’s leaders from attending its meetings. At the same time, armed resistance to military rule has increased to the extent that some U.N. experts say Myanmar is now in a state of civil war.