ASEAN chair urges Myanmar junta to honor quake truce

BANGKOK, Thailand — Malaysian Prime Minister and ASEAN chair Anwar Ibrahim said Friday he had urged Myanmar's junta leader to respect a post-earthquake ceasefire in backroom talks in Bangkok.

Junta officials have been barred from summits of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over lack of progress on a peace deal since Myanmar's military snatched power in a 2021 coup and sparked a civil war.

But junta chief Min Aung Hlaing travelled to Bangkok on Thursday to meet Anwar, who holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, on the sidelines of his talks with Thai officials.

Myanmar's military declared a ceasefire until April 22 after last month's magnitude-7.7 earthquake killed at least 3,700 people. Conflict monitors say fighting has continued, including regular junta airstrikes.

"I told him it's important to cease fire," Anwar told reporters in Bangkok. "It's important to allow for humanitarian efforts to cover all of Myanmar, irrespective of where they are or what political position they take."

"That assurance was given," he said.

A Myanmar junta statement on Thursday night made no mention of Anwar's overtures for peace. It said the talks had focused on "cooperation for rehabilitation after the Myanmar earthquake disaster".

- Ease relief efforts -

The March 28 quake has left 60,000 people living in tents, according to the United Nations, and pushed two million people into "critical need of assistance and protection".

When the military government declared the truce to ease relief efforts it warned adversaries it would still retaliate to their offensive operations. A junta spokesman this week accused armed groups of attacks across the country.

Anwar also called on Friday a senior leader from Myanmar's opposition "National Unity Government", Mahn Winn Khaing Thann. Myanmar's junta has announced plans to hold an election around the end of the year.

But the NUG has urged the public and political parties to boycott any poll organised by the military government which jailed the country's last civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Analysts say it could not possibly be a genuine democratic exercise with the country split between the military and hundreds of factions of ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters.

"We do express ASEAN's concern," said Anwar. "We are not pushing this too fast because we want this sort of consensus... to ensure there is fair and free elections."