Aftershocks and junta arrests spread fear in quake-hit Myanmar

Powerful aftershocks continue to bring down buildings compromised by Friday’s massive earthquake, as hopes of finding more survivors fade and the UN warns severe shortages of medical supplies are complicating relief efforts.

Doctors and medics treat a victim pulled out from under the rubble of the destroyed Sky Villa Condominium development in Mandalay. Picture: Sai Aung Main/AFP

On the ruined streets of Mandalay fear is mounting, not just for the countless number of people trapped under rubble for whom time is running out but for those trying to rescue them.

Since Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake (and dozens of severe aftershocks) devastated large swathes of central Myanmar, the military is said to have seized volunteer rescuers found to be on conscription lists for their ongoing campaign to crush a popular resistance that is now said to control as much as half the country.

“Able-bodied people are being approached on the streets by security forces and being asked to accompany them for drafting into the military,” one person with knowledge of those conscriptions who asked to remain anonymous told The Australian.

“They come with their conscript lists and catch them while they are volunteering to rescue,” said another, adding military checkpoints near rebel-held Sagaing were also searching for resistance fighters among the volunteers.

Whether these are isolated cases or part of a systematic effort, the prospect of arrest has struck fear into voluntary rescue teams at a time when they are needed more than ever.

Three days after the catastrophic earthquake crumpled roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, temples, mosques, apartments and office buildings across six regions of conflict-racked Myanmar, aid organisations were warning the window to find more victims alive was closing.

While the successful rescue of a woman from the ruins of a Mandalay hotel early on Monday provided a glimmer of hope that more people trapped in the rubble could be saved, in reality there is little chance of survival after the initial 72-hour “golden period”.

“The focus as always after an earthquake like this one is to try and find the people still alive under rubble but I would say the extent of the damage, and needs, is not clear. And in coming hours maybe we will see a picture that is even worse than what we could expect,” International Federation of the Red Cross spokesman Tommaso Della Longa said.

“We cannot forget these communities were already vulnerable because of the internal conflict and economic crisis. It’s already 42 degrees in part of the country … and the monsoon season is around the corner. We are trying to save lives in this window, but then housing and shelter is very important because of what will happen next.

“Myanmar communities will need international solidarity not only for weeks or months but possibly years.”

The official death toll of 1700 – with another 18 deaths confirmed in neighbouring Thailand – is widely considered a gross under-assessment, with the US Geological Survey estimating deaths could climb beyond 10,000.

But a more accurate picture is being hampered by communications blackouts – including those imposed for years by the military on resistance strongholds – damaged roads and bridges, and a lack of electricity, with little information coming out from more than a dozen badly affected villages and towns.

Friday’s earthquake has heaped a catastrophe on to an existing crisis in Myanmar, where the military’s February 2021 coup triggered an ongoing civil conflict.

More than three million were internally displaced before the latest natural disaster but on Monday millions more were preparing to spend their fourth consecutive night without electricity, drinking water or shelter – either too frightened to return to their homes or with no home left to go to.

Powerful aftershocks have continued to bring down buildings compromised by the initial earthquake, while the UN has warned that “severe shortages of medical supplies” – including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics and assistive devices – are complicating relief efforts.

Hospitals are overwhelmed, as are crematoriums and cemeteries. Bodies are piling up as families seek to cremate their dead.

India, Russia and China have sent large emergency teams, as have Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, while an 80-tonne UNICEF shipment of emergency water and sanitation supplies is due to land in Yangon on Wednesday.

However, a Taiwanese rescue team was turned around by authorities after landing in Yangon on Sunday.

Volunteers and heavy earthmoving equipment bound for devastated Sagaing, the epicentre of the earthquake, were also turned around by junta forces – lending weight to fears the military regime would weaponise aid and assistance, as it has done in previous disasters.

As in Mandalay, the smell of decomposing bodies was becoming overwhelming in parts of rebel-held Sagaing across the river, said Poh Poh, a Burmese woman organising aid for the area.

“There is a shortage of drinking water as well. They have some wells which they can pump water from but there is no electricity. Most shops in Sagaing were destroyed so we are trying to organise to send generators from Mandalay, but even if we can find them we are not sure if the junta will let us bring them in.”

Junta commander Min Aung Hlaing declared a state of emergency in six regions within hours of Friday’s quake and also issued a rare appeal for international aid, though on Sunday the regime barred foreign journalists from entering the country, citing a lack of essential services.

Voluntary rescuers have complained that official relief efforts in the military-held capital of Naypyidaw – also hit hard by the quake – were prioritising government offices and staff housing, leaving locals and aid groups to dig through the rubble by hand in residential areas in temperatures of more than 40C.

The IFRC on Monday launched an emergency appeal for 100 million Swiss francs ($113m) to provide relief in Myanmar over the next two years.

Australian Red Cross international programs director Alex Mathieson said addressing all obstacles to aid distribution was a “number one priority”, and the organisation’s founding principle of impartiality meant it was best positioned to “secure unimpeded access across frontlines” to provide aid to those in need.

But Crisis Group Myanmar researcher Richard Horsey told The Australian he feared the humanitarian system did not have the money for the “hard slog of weeks and months of providing water and sanitation and shelter to millions of people”.

“The regime should be bending over backwards to create an environment that assures people to come and provide assistance,” he said.

Equally critical was that those advocating for a massive international relief effort did “not tie this up in knots over hypothetical questions over whether the regime will block aid”.

Khin Zaw Win, of Myanmar’s Tampadipa Institute think tank, said the junta’s absence from early rescue efforts was a gauge of its relative weakness after four years of waging war against its own people.

“People are offering backhoes, earthmoving equipment and shelter for Sagaing – all this is coming from the non-state sector,” he said.

“In other countries at a time like this the whole armed forces would mobilise but not in Myanmar.

“On the contrary, the military is continuing its bombing operations.”