Julie Bishop calls for end to Myanmar’s civil conflict to allow ‘urgent aid’ after earthquake

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop, now the UN Special Envoy on Myanmar, says the natural disaster has made a dire situation in the strife-torn nation even more heartbreaking.

Julie Bishop wants fighting to cease ‘so we can focus our attention and resources and effort on assisting those people in desperate need’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Julie Bishop has called for an immediate end to fighting between Myanmar’s military and resistance forces to allow “urgent and lifesaving aid” to be delivered across a vast area devastated by Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that is feared to have claimed thousands of lives.

The former Australian foreign minister, now UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, told The Australian the quake was “heartbreaking for the people of Myanmar” who were already in dire need as a result of the four-year civil conflict sparked by the February 2021 military coup.

A resident carries belongings over debris next to a damaged building in Naypyidawafter an earthquake in central Myanmar. Picture: Sai Aung Main/AFP

“This natural disaster will greatly exacerbate an already dire situation for the people of Myanmar,” Ms Bishop said on Saturday after arriving back in Australia on an overnight flight from quake-affected Bangkok.

“The conflict between the military and the people has already led to massive devastation; thousands killed, millions displaced.

“The situation has now become even more urgent and disastrous and I call upon all the parties to the conflict to cease all violence now so we can focus our attention and resources and effort on assisting those people in desperate need.”

The UN overnight announced an initial $US5 million ($7.9m) aid package for Myanmar to provide urgent lifesaving aid in response to appeals from the country’s military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing for international assistance.

UN country teams on the ground in Myanmar have already begun the mammoth task of assessing the scale of the damage, which the UN Geological Survey warned would be extensive and include loss of life potentially into the tens of thousands.

But with many of the worst-affected areas under military control, democracy activists have warned the junta will likely seek to exploit the situation to its military advantage by obstructing or manipulating humanitarian access – as it did after Cyclone Mocha in 2023 and Cyclone Yagi last year.

Many have called for all international aid to be channelled through the parallel National Unity Government, made up of MPs from the ousted Aung San Suu Kyi government, and through resistance forces and allied ethnic armed groups fighting the junta.

Ms Bishop said aid would be distributed according to need and through multiple channels to ensure it reach those worst affected.

“My understanding is neighbouring countries including Bangladesh, India and China have been finding ways to ensure aid can be transmitted via the UN and other partners,” she said.

Patients are attended to in a makeshift medical treatment area in the recreational hall of a hospital in Bangkok on Saturday, a day after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. Picture: Montira Rungjirajittranon / AFP

“They have engaged with other entities, including ethnic armed groups, to ensure aid can be distributed to those in need particularly in non-military controlled areas. At this stage our team within Myanmar are doing what they can to work with neighbouring countries as well as UN global networks.

“Regardless of who controls the territory we have to emphasise the need for safe and unimpeded access to populations in need. We know well that Myanmar is not controlled by a single entity.”

Ms Bishop was in Bangkok on Friday meeting Yangon-based diplomats at the five-star Kimpton Hotel near Lumpini Park when the massive earthquake, which struck just before 1pm local time just outside of Mandalay city, violently shook the modern high-rise building.

Rescue teams operate at the site where an under-construction building collapsed in Bangkok. Picture: Chanakarn Laosarakham / AFP

“It was quite a profound experience because I was in a 30-storey building which shook quite violently. The building was shaking and creaking and I ran down 15 flights of stairs and joined thousands evacuating buildings in the CBD,” she told The Australian.

“It was a newer building but some of the older, more flimsy structures (in Bangkok) were in an imminent state of collapse.”

The 68-year-old was among thousands of people who streamed out of buildings across the Thai capital on Friday and gathered in public parks as the city shook from the strength of the quake some 1000km away.

The earthquake caused damage to buildings across Bangkok and razed a 34-storey building still under construction near the famous Chatuchak markets.

Thai emergency workers were still scrambling on Saturday to try to free as many as 100 people still feared trapped beneath the rubble.