After the earthquake, Myanmar must now be saved from its ruthless military dictators

As the powerful aftershocks from the Myanmar earthquake were being felt around the country, the junta’s air force was in action over the epicentre of the natural disaster, conducting airstrikes against its victims. Defenseless civilians, traumatised and trapped under rubble, were bombed from the skies, as were the first responders attempting to rescue them.

With his fighter jets circling over central Myanmar, the Burmese dictator Min Aung Hlaing appeared on television to appeal for international aid.

Targeting earthquake survivors ought to be a red line in anyone’s book. It should also be a wake-up call for the UK delegation at the UN Security Council.

It must now act to secure wider support for the relief effort. In such matters, it has form. In 2022, in response to mounting violence, the UK midwifed the only Security Council resolution on Myanmar in the UN’s history.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office must again marshal its considerable diplomatic skills to persuade council members to sign up to a resolution imposing an extended humanitarian pause in the fighting, specifically prohibiting attacks by junta jets, helicopters, motored paragliders and drones.

Far from leading the relief effort, Myanmar’s military has sought to leverage military advantage at a time of national catastrophe. Ending this outrage should not be a difficult sell to the UN Security Council.

The humanitarian pause should be an informal but binding agreement, not a formal ceasefire, which would serve to legitimise a junta widely rejected by the Burmese people as illegitimate.

The National Unity Government, representing the ousted civilian administration, has already said its armed forces will begin a two-week pause in offensive military operations.

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 in 2023. Aid was used as a weapon of war against Rohingya 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 systematic campaign to fix the coming referendum on a new national constitution, which gave the military massively enhanced powers.

Cross-border aid is also essential to the two-thirds of the country under non-junta control, areas where the generals impose tight restrictions on UN and other agencies. Aid is flowing from Thailand already, through local groups. This must be dramatically ramped up. On the Western border, an emergency corridor from Bangladesh through Rakhine State to Sagaing, the quake’s epicentre, 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 which 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 must demand an end to the system of permits for life-saving work.

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, which lie at the core of all humanitarian action, have been embraced by the UN General Assembly, and it would be inconsistent if Security Council members objected.

As part of international monitoring, there must be specific protection for local humanitarian agencies delivering assistance in non-junta areas. Since the 2021 coup, well-developed networks of community volunteers and self-help groups have proliferated.

Key to the relief effort is reestablishing internet and phone connections in all parts of the country, particularly where the junta has intentionally cut them down.

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, they are prepared to commit scarce funds.

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.

Myanmar presents humanitarian actors with an opportunity to prove their cost-effectiveness, and for local partners to put to good use their unprecedented reach into their communities. Our leaders also have an opportunity to demand demonstrable value for money on behalf of taxpayers.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, emerging paradigms of aid delivery must be tested, opportunities grasped, and trust in overseas assistance restored. But it all begins with robust Security Council action. A UN-backed humanitarian pause in the fighting is an essential first step.

Christopher Gunness is the director of the UK-based Myanmar Accountability Project