All 193 member countries of the United Nations are entitled to address the General Assembly, but one was missing from the list of speakers this week. Where was Myanmar?
U Kyaw Moe Tun told The New York Times on Tuesday that he planned to be in Myanmar’s chair at the assembly hall in New York, his presence a quiet reminder of a civil war that the world has seemingly forgotten.
But he will not address the General Assembly, he said — in keeping with an arrangement that has allowed him to hold onto his post for the past five years, in open defiance of Myanmar’s military-backed government.
The elected government that sent Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun to New York in 2020 was ousted in a military coup the following year. Weeks after the putsch, he delivered a fiery speech to the General Assembly, pleading for international help to restore democracy to Myanmar. The junta announced his firing on state television the next day.
The United Nations still lists the ousted government — including Aung San Suu Kyi — as Myanmar’s official head of state. All along, the junta sought international legitimacy. This year, it has tried to transform itself into an elected government with elections that were widely seen as a sham.
The junta has written open letters to the U.N. secretary general António Guterres calling for Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun’s removal. Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement this month that Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun was living in the mission residence and using government funds without authorization.
Like other permanent representatives to the United Nations, Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun said he would spend the week preparing for the General Assembly’s six committees, in which countries discuss topics including disarmament, economic and social development, and humanitarian issues.
But his to-do list includes tasks from which most ambassadors are spared. He mows the lawn at his residence in upstate New York, drives himself to the United Nations building in the mission’s black Cadillac and finds his own parking in Manhattan.
Many of his staff have been let go to cut costs, Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun said in an interview last month. He stopped receiving a salary last year, he said, and the mission is running out of money.
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