Despite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent call for lasting peace in military-ruled Myanmar, the country’s junta has continued offensive operations against resistance forces nationwide, launching at least nine attacks in five regions and states since Modi’s plea.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations in Bangkok on Friday, Modi urged junta boss Min Aung Hlaing to enter a permanent ceasefire with the rebels following a devastating earthquake on March 28, the death toll for which has surpassed 3,500 people and continues to climb.
Since seizing power in a coup in 2021, Myanmar’s military has been waging war against its own people, who have taken up arms to fight against military rule. The junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombing and shelling has killed many civilians and left the country devastated politically and economically.
During their meeting in Bangkok, according to a tweet from Indian government spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, Modi told Min Aung Hlaing that a political resolution to the conflict was the only way forward, starting with inclusive and credible elections, adding that India would engage every stakeholder to support the process. Modi also offered to ramp up aid in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. India was among the first countries to send rescue teams and aid to Myanmar.
However, Modi’s call for peace has fallen on deaf ears.
Since the day of the Indian prime minister’s request for a permanent truce, The Irrawaddy has recorded at least nine regime attacks, including airstrikes and shelling, in Rakhine and Shan states and Mandalay, Sagaing and Bago regions.
On Friday, the day Modi called for a ceasefire, the junta dispatched ground troops, jet fighters and naval vessels to attack villages in Kyaukphyu in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, most of which is controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army.
On Saturday, the junta bombed Myanmar’s ruby town Moegoke—which is under the control of anti-regime resistance group the Mandalay PDF and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed organization—several times, damaging many civilian homes.
During the weekend, the regime launched two air raids on TNLA-controlled Nawnghkio in northern Shan State, while a junta paramotor attack on a village Chaung-U Township in another resistance hotbed, Sagaing, killed three civilians, residents said.
Shortly before join the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok, Min Aung Hlaing announced a uniliteral ceasefire form April 2-22 to allow for quake relief efforts.
However, the junta violated the truce after just a few hours by bombing resistance areas, including some in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, where the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization is active.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against its opponents since the earthquake struck on March 28, including airstrikes, of which 16 came after the ceasefire on April 2.
Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) said the junta is committing systematic and widespread grave human rights violations across Myanmar despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake.
“We call for accountability for the inhumane and brutal crimes committed by the military junta, including through international judicial mechanisms,” said the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights.
The NUG urged international governments and organizations, including the UN, not to engage directly with the “terrorist junta” on quake relief efforts.
“We urge all stakeholders to find ways to deliver aid to earthquake-affected communities through civil society organizations, ethnic organizations, and the National Unity Government of Myanmar.”
