Malaysia calls for Myanmar truce extension

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia called Sunday for the extension and expansion of a post-earthquake ceasefire in Myanmar due to run out at the end of May, despite ongoing fighting calling into question its effectiveness.

The ruling military junta initially declared a truce in the many-sided civil war after a huge quake late March killed nearly 3,800 and left tens of thousands homeless.

The truce has been extended before, although conflict monitors say fighting has continued, including regular junta airstrikes.

At a meeting of regional foreign ministers on Sunday, Malaysian foreign minister Mohamad Hasan “proposed the extension and expansion of ceasefires beyond the currently affected zones”, a statement said.

“We call on the stakeholders in Myanmar to cease hostilities, and to extend and expand the ceasefire, to facilitate the long and difficult path towards recovery, and ease the suffering of the people of Myanmar,” Mohamad said in his opening remarks.

Malaysia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The bloc has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end Myanmar’s conflict since the junta staged a coup deposing civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

ASEAN has struggled to implement a five-point peace plan agreed by all bloc leaders, including the junta, in April 2021.

Junta officials have been barred from ASEAN summits over lack of progress on a peace deal.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim met Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in Bangkok in April and urged him to respect the truce.

The United Nations and independent conflict monitors say the junta has continued its campaign of aerial bombardment despite the armistice.

In mid-May witnesses said a junta airstrike hit a school near the quake’s epicentre in Sagaing region, killing 22 people, including 20 children.

Numerous anti-coup and ethnic armed groups have made their own pledges to pause hostilities.

However some residents in eastern Myanmar said they have been displaced as anti-coup forces besieged junta-held towns on a lucrative trade route towards neighbouring Thailand.

Myanmar’s junta has announced plans to hold an election around the end of the year.

But Myanmar’s opposition “National Unity Government” has urged the public and political parties to boycott any poll organised by the military government.

Anwar said after his April meeting with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing that ASEAN had expressed “concern” and wanted to slowly build consensus to ensure “fair and free elections” — something analysts have said will be difficult if not impossible to achieve.