Even as a massive earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday, killing thousands of people and triggering powerful aftershocks that continued for days across huge swathes of the country, the ruling junta’s air force was in action over Sagaing, the epicentre of the disaster, conducting airstrikes against quake victims in resistance-held areas. Defenceless civilians, dying, traumatised, some trapped under rubble, were bombed from the skies with indiscriminate and disproportionate weapons, in violation of international law.
And even as his fighter jets and drones circled their targets in northern and central Myanmar, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing was on television, appealing for international aid. Meanwhile, offers of a ceasefire were refused, and even a Chinese aid convoy came under attack from his forces.
This is an affront to the humanity of all of us: a general who ousted a democratic government, whose forces have gunned down thousands of civilians in four years of state-sponsored violence that has displaced 3.5 million people, and whose administration has driven a third of the country into abject aid-dependency, positioning himself as a humanitarian saviour, spearheading the rescue and recovery operation with the support of international donors.
This farce must be opposed immediately, and it can be.
UK-led Security Council action
The UK government should act robustly as the influential “penholder” at the United Nations Security Council with the power to raise Myanmar in emergency session. The UK Mission in New York has a proven track record here. In 2022 it midwifed the only Security Council resolution on Myanmar in the history of the UN. The UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office must marshal its considerable diplomatic skills to persuade council members that attacking victims in the aftermath of an earthquake is a red line that must never be crossed.
The Council must sign up to a resolution imposing an extended humanitarian pause in the fighting, explicitly banning attacks by jets, helicopters, motored paragliders and drones. This should be an informal, but binding, agreement, and not a formal ceasefire, which would only serve to legitimise a junta widely rejected by the people of Myanmar as illegitimate. Such is the gravity of the situation that the resolution must be tabled under the mandatory provisions of chapter seven of the UN charter.
Already, the National Unity Government, which represents the ousted civilian administration, and a powerful northern alliance of armed groups have said their armed forces will begin a two-week pause in offensive military operations in areas affected by the earthquake.
In addition, the Security Council must demand unfettered humanitarian access, mindful of the near-total restrictions on international aid agencies imposed by the junta in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which struck northern Rakhine State, home to the country’s Rohingya population, in 2023. Aid was used as a weapon of war against victims of an ongoing genocide: shocking, but part of the junta’s long track-record of weaponising humanitarian assistance.
In 2008, when Cyclone Nargis killed 140,000 people, the junta restricted and then manipulated aid to consolidate its power. There were confirmed reports of generals putting their names on humanitarian shipments as part of a widespread and systematic campaign to fix the coming referendum on a new national constitution which gave the military massively enhanced powers. The referendum was “approved” in a fake vote.
Cross-border aid is also essential, to parts of the country under non-junta control, areas where the generals impose tight restrictions on UN and other agencies working “in country.” Already aid is flowing from Thailand, through local groups. This must be dramatically ramped up, and an emergency corridor from Bangladesh through Rakhine State to Sagaing is an urgent humanitarian imperative.
Key to the effectiveness of the local recovery response is the mobilisation of heavy rubble-clearing equipment, much of which is in private ownership, but now requires permission from the military to work with local rescue teams. As part of any conversations about humanitarian operations, the UN and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) must demand an end to the system of permits for life-saving work.
Aid must reach non-junta areas
The Security Council must insist that aid reaches non-junta areas in compliance with the four humanitarian principles: humanity (on the basis of need), impartiality, neutrality, and operational independence. These principles lie at the core of all humanitarian action and are rooted in international humanitarian law. They have been embraced by the United Nations through General Assembly resolutions and it would be inconsistent, to say the least, if Security Council members objected.
The humanitarian system must use the Security Council’s authority as a springboard for a massive ramping up of aid efforts across Myanmar. The UN country team consisting of UN agencies and INGOs must work, as never before, with local partners that have unprecedented reach into their communities. Bureaucratic restrictions imposed by international agencies, such as extensive monitoring and evaluation obligations, must be radically streamlined, or life-saving assistance will be fatally delayed.
As part of international monitoring, there must be specific protection provisions for local humanitarian agencies, particularly volunteers from the democratic movement delivering assistance in non-junta areas. Myanmar has a well-developed network of community volunteers and self-help groups that have strengthened in the face of conflict and neglect. But in previous emergency responses, there were widespread arrests and illegal imprisonment of aid workers. Robust donor scrutiny must ensure this is not repeated.
The Security Council should also insist that forced conscription, which has become an appalling feature of Myanmar’s conflict, must cease immediately in all earthquake-affected areas so that rescue workers and volunteers can feel safe to participate in emergency operations.
Re-establishing internet and phone connections in all parts of the country, particularly where the junta has intentionally cut them off, is an essential element of any humanitarian effort.
Huge efficiency savings
Despite savage cuts in US and other national aid budgets, world leaders, including Donald Trump, have made clear that the situation in Myanmar is so desperate that they are prepared to commit scarce funds. Those of us working in the humanitarian space in Myanmar are grateful for being given what looks like a pass. We must use it wisely.
Significantly, it is now widely accepted that the “localisation of aid—ramped up partnerships with local agencies—drastically reduces the cost of assistance and significantly increases efficiencies, potentially delivering billions in savings.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, emerging paradigms of aid delivery must be tested, opportunities grasped, and trust in overseas assistance restored.
Myanmar presents humanitarian actors with an opportunity to prove their cost effectiveness. Our leaders also have an opportunity to demand demonstrable value for money on behalf of taxpayers.
But all this begins with robust Security Council action. A UN-backed humanitarian pause in the fighting is an essential first step.
Christopher Gunness is director of the UK-based Myanmar Accountability Project and has been reporting on Myanmar since the 1980s.
