Myanmar junta declares quake ceasefire as survivors plead for aid

AFP | Sagaing

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Myanmar’s junta announced a temporary ceasefire yesterday as the death toll from a devastating earthquake rose and desperate survivors pleaded for more help amid frantic scenes of aid distribution.

The shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday flattened buildings across Myanmar, killing nearly 3,000 people and making thousands more homeless. The military government said it would observe a ceasefire from Wednesday until April 22 to make quake relief efforts easier, after other armed groups fighting the country’s bloody fouryear civil war made similar pledges.

The junta said in a statement the move had “the aim of speeding up relief and reconstruction efforts, and maintaining peace and stability”.

But it warned its opponents -- a complex array of pro-democracy and ethnic minority armed groups -- it would still respond to attacks, acts of sabotage or “gathering, organising, and expanding territory that would undermine peace”.

UN agencies, rights groups and foreign governments had earlier urged all sides in Myanmar’s civil war to stop fighting and focus on helping those affected by the quake, the biggest to hit the country in decades.

The junta said Min Aung Hlaing will travel to Bangkok on Thursday for a summit of South Asian countries plus Myanmar and Thailand, where he will discuss the quake response.