Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold special Myanmar talks

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers are holding a special meeting on Thursday to discuss ways to deal with a growing crisis in Myanmar, where a military takeover last year set off violence that threatens to destabilize the region. Recent events in Myanmar, including a military air strike that reportedly killed as many as 80 members of an ethnic minority, have heightened worries among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN members traditionally avoid criticizing each other, and the violence unleashed by Myanmar’s military is widely seen as exposing the group’s powerlessness in dealing with a geopolitical and humanitarian emergency that could affect all of them.