Bangkok, May 1 (EFE).- The military junta that has held power in Myanmar since the 2021 coup confirmed Thursday the end of the temporary ceasefire declared after the devastating earthquake that struck the country on Mar. 28.
Military Spokesman Zaw Min Tun told EFE in a brief message about the end of the truce announced on April 2, although the opposition has accused the army of having violated the measure hundreds of times.
The truce was declared under the pretext of facilitating humanitarian aid following the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck the north-central region of the country, leaving more than 3,700 dead, tens of thousands homeless, and nearly 200,000 displaced.
The end of the ceasefire was ignored in the pages of The Global New Light of Myanmar, the main official English-language media outlet controlled by the military since the uprising.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim again called Tuesday on the warring parties in Myanmar to extend the ceasefire to assist those affected by the earthquake.
Anwar met with junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Bangkok in mid-April to ask him to extend the truce, in an unusual rapprochement between a Southeast Asian leader and the coup leader, who has been sidelined from major meetings since the 2021 coup.
The pro-democracy opposition, which also declared a similar cessation of hostilities after the disaster, and several ethnic guerrilla groups accuse the junta of having carried out hundreds of attacks despite the ceasefire.
The coup ended a decade of democratic transition and intensified the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades.
Amnesty International said Tuesday that the conflict has escalated in Myanmar in the last year and that the army is launching an “indiscriminate, disproportionate, and deadly” offensive against the rebels. EFE
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