Only a few hours after the MAGNITY 7.7 earthquake devastating hit the center of Myanmar last Friday, the leader of the military junta controlling the country, Min Aung HLAING, pleaded for any international assistance to be sent to the isolated country quickly.
Hlaing said he “opened all ways with foreign help” because he had asked countries and organizations to “come and help” with desperately necessary rescue efforts after the earthquake and overthrew thousands of buildings, trapping an incalculable number of people.
Almost a week after the earthquake, the number of deaths was 3,145 people, with more than 4,500 people injured and many more stuck under debris. Real figures should be much higher.
Hlaing’s appeal was an extremely rare decision for the military leader, who seized power in a coup that filed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021, and quickly sealed the country of the rest of the world.
The takeover was followed by bloody repression on dissent across the country and an in progress civil war.
The call for help provided a little glimmer of hope among the experts on the political situation of the Myanmar that this disaster could be different from the previous ones to strike the country, such as the Mocha cyclone of 2023, when the efforts of aid were obstructed.
Rescuers released four people from the collapsed buildings in Myanmar early on Monday, the Chinese media reported, while the researchers ran to find more survivors in Myanmar and Thailand.
But this hope quickly dissipated.
Many aid organizations and human rights groups have confirmed that the rapid assistance intended for those of the Myanmar who needed it most was to be blocked, such as the 72 -hour “golden” rescue window after a massive earthquake – in which you are most likely to find survivors trapped under the rubble – closed.
“It has just been a disaster,” said Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, at CBC News during an interview in Bangkok, Thailand, who also suffered damage more than a thousand kilometers from the Earthquake epicent. (A skyscraper under construction collapsed, trapping more than 80 workers. More than a dozen are confirmed dead.)
“We know this help [in Myanmar] was clogged. We know that there have been arrests and blocks to control points in areas where they do not want aid, “said Andrews.
“There is an armament of this help.”
‘I have already seen this film “
In the days following the earthquake – the worst that the region saw in a century – the military continued air strikes and bombings in territories held by the rebels. The junta currently controls less than a third of the country, with its power concentrated in major cities.
But Wednesday, Myanmar army leaders declared a three-week temporary cease-fire to support help efforts, after the military government has led to a general conviction for having shot a Chinese Red Cross convoy trying to deliver food and drugs to the survivors.
A junta spokesman confirmed that soldiers had shot vehicles because he said, they had not been informed that the convoy would arrive.
The junta allies rescue teams – including China and Russia – were the first to enter the country to provide assistance, as well as to teams from countries like India, which has maintained cordial relations with the leaders of the Myanmar army.
The power junta was rejected and sanctioned by most Western countries.
According to Andrews, the junta follows a familiar game book by obstructing crucial help, especially in the regions where the armed resistance to the coup d’etat is strong. It is a tactic used in the past to consolidate the power of the army in Myanmar.
“I have already seen this film and he doesn’t have a happy ending,” said Andrews.
Junta pressure
He added that continuous air strikes also created “a whole level of fear and terror” in the country torn apart by war, where some 20 million Burmeses were already deprived of appropriate access to food and sheltered before the earthquake.
“We need all hands on the bridge in Myanmar. But instead of that, they are diverted and instead of saving lives, they are taken,” said Andrews.
The disaster has raised questions about the question of whether the junta will be able to keep power as the resistance deepens.
The earthquake has caused numerous damage in the new capital of Naytyidaw, a strongly fortified city created by a previous military general to consolidate the grip of the army on Myanmar and isolate its leaders of popular dissent. The city’s air traffic control tower overturned and several wings from the Ministry of the Government of the Government collapsed.
A retired school director said to the New York Times That myanmar has “a saying that a massive earthquake like this is the way of punishing a cruel and corrupt sovereign”.
“After killing so many people, Min Aung Hlaing is now faced with the judgment of nature,” she added.
In November, the International Criminal Court published an arrest warrant against Hlaing for crimes against humanity, linked to the persecution and deportations of the country of its Muslim Rohingya community.
Despair grows
Six days after the disaster, there was chaos in the middle of the hundreds of buildings collapsed near the epicenter. Many residents clutter parks and other open spaces at night, too terrified to enter their partially cracked houses, while others are unable to return to demolished houses.
“In Mandalay City, most of us do everything ourselves,” said Khin Thazin Aung, 31, unable to retaliate tears by describing local rescue efforts.
“We need everything – things like food and refuge. But [our government] Can’t help us, “she told CBC News, adding that she hoped the world how myanmar needs help.
Many residents are struggling with trauma, said Aung, who said that she had seen survivors tremble in an uncontrollable way, while the smell of bodies trapped under rubble floated in the air.
In the shadow of a major bridge which collapsed in the earthquake, Tin, which gave its first name only the wired service of Reuters, painted the river for the body of his daughter.
“I am looking for it myself, because there are no rescue operations here,” he said. “No one is there to help me.”
Myanmar military leaders refused to authorize foreign journalists in the country to cover devastation.
Some aid organizations also had trouble entering Myanmar, said Mikhael de Souza, project manager for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the former capital, Yangon.
But he still hopes that the devastation scale, in addition to international projectors, will influence the junta to leave more help.
“We have teams and a lot of equipment waiting just to enter the country, and I have good hopes that it will happen very soon,” Souza to CBC News told Souza on Thursday.
However, he recognized that Myanmar is a “difficult and complex country” whose military government has been difficult to negotiate with the past.
The damaged infrastructure also hamper the speed of rescue and recovery efforts, with the journey of Yangon, the largest city, in Mandalay near the epicenter now taking double the usual eight hours.
De Souza said the primary health problem is a lack of electricity and clean water in the disaster area, with fear that the lack of control of infections in damaged hospitals causes cholera epidemic.
The monsoon season is also approaching, which will worsen the conditions already catastrophic in the central part of the country.
