By Taing Rinith
Despite being one of the worst natural calamities to ever strike Southeast Asia, the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday last week could turn out to be a game-changing condition that weakens the military government and hopefully leads to the end of the civil war and political turmoil in the country, said a prominent Myanmar activist.
It is also the right time that Cambodia may take a leading role in coordinating the peaceful negotiation among conflicting parties in Myanmar, given the Kingdom’s experience of bringing the end of its own civil war in the past, he added.
The death toll from last week’s devastating earthquake in Myanmar has surpassed 2,000, state media reported Monday. Heart-wrenching accounts of victims’ final moments have begun to emerge: 200 Buddhist monks buried beneath the rubble of a collapsing monastery, 50 children killed as their preschool classroom crumbled, and 700 Muslims struck down while praying at mosques during Ramadan.
Aid groups and the United Nations have warned that the earthquake could worsen hunger and disease outbreaks in Myanmar, a country already among the most difficult for humanitarian efforts due to ongoing civil war.
Relief operations face additional challenges, including power outages, fuel shortages, and unreliable communications. The lack of heavy machinery has severely slowed search-and-rescue efforts, leaving many to dig through rubble by hand under scorching temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, Maung Zarni, a renowned Myanmar activist and 2024 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, told Khmer Times in an exclusive interview that the recent disaster should have been a wake-up call for the military junta, an opportunity for them to halt the fighting and focus on humanitarian efforts.
“However, instead of prioritising the welfare of the people, the junta continues to wage war, refusing to mobilise military resources for rescue and relief operations,” he said. “Shockingly, rather than calling for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow rescue operations, the junta has restricted international access.”
“Foreign journalists are barred from entering, and the junta has not issued any meaningful emergency response. Their fear is not just of international scrutiny but of exposing their complete incompetence and failure as a governing body.”
Still, Zarni suggests that the military junta will soon force itself to enter a ceasefire and peace negotiations due to the declines in both economy and infrastructure on its side.
“The scale of destruction is immense,” he explained. “Cities such as Naypyidaw, Mandalay, and Sagaing have suffered catastrophic damage. Naypyidaw, the military-controlled capital, has seen government buildings, airports, and even military bunkers severely damaged. Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, is in ruins, with nearly half of it rendered uninhabitable—comparable to the devastation in Gaza.”
“Sagaing, the earthquake’s epicentre, is estimated to be 90% destroyed. Entire communities have been displaced, with millions now forced to live on the streets, too afraid to re-enter structurally compromised buildings.”
According to Zarni, a parallel can be drawn with Indonesia’s Aceh province, where a long-standing conflict between the Indonesian government and the Acehnese resistance was halted following the 2004 tsunami. The disaster created a humanitarian crisis so severe that both sides chose to come together and broker peace.
“Myanmar now faces a similar moment. But unlike in Aceh, where there were only two warring factions,” he added. “Myanmar’s conflict involves multiple ethnic resistance organisations, each holding different territories and agendas. The junta is steadily losing ground to these groups, yet it refuses to acknowledge the reality of its declining power.”
Myanmar is facing a crisis of survival, not just due to the earthquake but because of decades of war and misrule, the activist said.
“The country’s economy is in freefall, with infrastructure, businesses, and entire cities destroyed. Villages controlled by resistance groups continue to be bombed by the military, even as thousands remain trapped under rubble,” he said.
“The health system has collapsed, with hospitals lacking electricity, medicine, and staff—many doctors and nurses have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, leaving urban hospitals understaffed and overwhelmed.”
This ongoing cycle of destruction must end, Zarni noted.
“The military junta, as the largest armed organisation in Myanmar, has the responsibility to make a peace overture,” he said. “Without an end to the civil war, there will be no meaningful reconstruction, no future for Myanmar’s people. The country has been in conflict for over 70 years.”
This earthquake should have been the turning point—a moment for all sides to come together, put aside their differences, and rebuild. Instead, the suffering continues, Zarni added. He also urged Cambodia to take a leading role as a mediator in ending the turmoil in Myanmar with an initiative known as the Phnom Penh Conference.
“Cambodia’s past offers a lesson for Myanmar. After years of war and genocide, Cambodia’s warring factions eventually came to an agreement under international pressure, leading to peace and reconstruction. A similar approach is needed in Myanmar,” Zarni explained.
“But for this to happen, ASEAN and the international community must recognise that the junta is no longer the sole or legitimate representative of Myanmar’s people. Peace must be pursued not just through the junta but with all actors involved in the conflict.”
On the other hand, Pou Sothirak, a retired academic and Distinguished Senior Advisor at the Cambodia Centre for Regional Studies (CCRS), said yesterday that political issues should be set aside at the moment, as Myanmar and its people are dealing with the worst natural calamity in history.
“This is still a staggering reminder to all the leaders of the country to focus attention on alleviating human suffering,” he said. “In Myanmar, people are dying. So, this is a time when political issues must step aside, and all efforts must be reshifted and refocussed on alleviating the suffering.”
Sothirak suggested that part of the action that needs to be carried on in Myanmar right now is unearthing the bodies of those who died in the earthquake and returning them to their families for funerals, providing proper healthcare to injured victims in the hospitals, and providing shelters to those who have lost their homes.
“That is the most important thing we need to deal with—emergency issues. This is a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “I’m calling for the government in Myanmar to focus on that.”
Sothirak added that what happens to the military junta depends on the next critical step that they take.
“How they respond to the crisis, how they bring about confidence and normalcy back to, uh, Myanmar – this is the long-term issue,” he said.
2 April 2025
Source: khmertimeskh.com