Myanmar junta defies quake ceasefire
BANGKOK—Myanmar’s junta has kept up a deadly military campaign, including airstrikes and artillery assaults, despite announcing a ceasefire after a major earthquake killed thousands in March, according to the United Nations and data from a crisis monitor.
The March 28 quake, the worst natural disaster to hit the impoverished nation in decades, triggered a multinational relief effort to support hundreds of thousands already ravaged by conflict and repeated international calls to halt the fighting.
On April 2, following similar moves by opposition armed groups, Myanmar’s military announced a 20-day ceasefire to support humanitarian relief.
On Tuesday it said the temporary cessation had been extended until April 30 after rare high-level talks led by Malaysia’s premier.
But unreported figures from the United Nations show that the fighting has continued unabated and a Reuters analysis of data provided by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project found the frequency of junta aerial attacks has increased since the ceasefire announcement, compared to the six months prior.
A junta spokesperson did not respond to multiple calls from Reuters seeking comment.
Between March 28 and April 24, the military launched at least 207 attacks, including 140 airstrikes and 24 artillery barrages, according to data from the UN Human Rights Office, based on reports it had received.
More than 172 attacks have occurred since the ceasefire, 73 of them in areas devastated by the earthquake.
In crisis
“It’s business as usual,” said James Rodehaver, Myanmar head for the United Nations Office on Human Rights.
“The ceasefire … should have involved stopping all military activity and repurposing your military to support the humanitarian response and that has not happened.”
Myanmar has been in crisis since the military seized power in February 2021, toppling the elected government of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
A brutal junta crackdown on the opposition ignited a spiraling civil war, including in the previously peaceful central heartlands where protesters took up arms.
Two weeks into the ceasefire, junta aircraft swooped over South Kan Ma Yaik village in southeastern Karen state on April 16, during Burmese new year celebrations, and dropped bombs that killed a pregnant woman and her unborn baby to the north of the settlement, an eyewitness told Reuters.
