Myanmar junta extends ceasefire again after quake
YANGON: Myanmar's junta has extended a post-earthquake truce, after the expiry of a previous humanitarian ceasefire it was accused of flouting with a continued campaign of air strikes.
The junta initially declared a truce in the many-sided civil war after a huge quake in late March killed nearly 3,800 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
The truce has been extended before, although conflict monitors say fighting has continued, including regular air strikes.
A statement from the junta information team on Saturday said there would be an extension of the armistice — which expired May 31 — until June 30.
This would 'facilitate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in earthquake-affected areas,' it said in the statement.
It added that the state was 'intensively engaging in reconstruction of damaged government offices and departments, public residences and transport facilities.'
The ceasefire would also allow the country to hold 'a free and fair multi-party democracy general election,' according to the statement.
The country's junta chief said earlier this year that a long-promised election will be held by January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021.
In the statement, the military also warned it would still strike back against any offensives by the array of ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters.
The announcement comes after Malaysian foreign minister Mohamad Hasan used a regional meeting last week to call for the extension and expansion of a ceasefire 'beyond the currently affected zones.'
Malaysia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The bloc has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end Myanmar's conflict since the junta deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
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