Myanmar junta and opposition set to extend ceasefire, says Malaysia PM Anwar

BANGKOK - Myanmar’s junta and a key opposition group have indicated they will extend a ceasefire to support more aid efforts, following a

devastating earthquake,

said Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on April 18, after rare high-level talks with the ruling military.

Myanmar has been in the throes of an expanding conflict since the military, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,

ousted an elected government in 2021

and formed the State Administration Council (SAC) to run the country.

In late March, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country, killing more than 3,600 people and creating a humanitarian crisis.

Datuk Seri Anwar, who is also chair of the regional Asean bloc, has since April 17 held talks with Myanmar’s junta chief and the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) that is battling the military, seeking to curb the ongoing conflict to push aid into the country.

“There will be a ceasefire and no unnecessary provocations, because otherwise, the whole humanitarian exercise would fail,” Mr Anwar told reporters in Bangkok.

“My initial exchange with both the SAC Prime Minister and NUG has been very successful,” he said.

After the March earthquake, Myanmar’s junta announced a 20-day ceasefire on April 2, following a similar move by the NUG, with more than 3.5 million people already displaced by the civil war and an economy in tatters.

The junta, however, has continued military operations in some areas, including air strikes, according to the United Nations and other groups.

In his talks with the NUG, Mr Anwar said he had conveyed that Asean would continue dialogue with it and the junta, and that humanitarian aid would be provided to required areas, irrespective of who was in control.

An NUG spokesperson told Reuters: “We understand that Asean, in its role as a regional body, may seek to engage with all actors involved in Myanmar’s situation.

“However, it is crucial that such engagement does not grant legitimacy to the military junta led by Min Aung Hlaing.”

Peace and polls

Mr Anwar’s move to directly engage with the junta, after years of Asean barring Myanmar’s generals from its meetings for their failure to comply with its peace plan, could provide a potential opening to resolve the protracted conflict, analysts said.

In particular, Mr Anwar should extend his dialogue process to include four of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organisations that control swathes of the country’s borderlands, said Dr Fuadi Pitsuwan, who is a political science scholar at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

“They are critical stakeholders in any viable peace process,” Dr Pitsuwan said.

The Asean bloc, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will remain focused on implementing its peace plan, Mr Anwar said.

“I’ve already consulted Asean leaders that I will continue to engage,” he said.

Mr Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union, a major ethnic outfit that holds territory along the Thai-Myanmar border, urged Asean to change its approach and reach out.

“Asean leaders must give credit and recognise us,” he told Reuters.

The renewed move to intensify dialogue in Myanmar also comes amid

a junta plan to hold a general election in December

, an exercise derided by its critics as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.

In Bangkok, Mr Anwar underlined the need for an inclusive, free and fair election – a message he said had been delivered to the junta, which wants to press ahead with the election plan without delay.

Still, some analysts warn that Asean must be cautious.

Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said: “Min Aung Hlaing has shown that he cannot be trusted.

“So Asean under Anwar has to be careful not to get taken for a ride.” REUTERS