Broken and under the influence of civil war, can myanmar rebuild after the earthquake? | Myanmar

FOr seven painful days, Hnin waited for news. Her two daughters, aged two and seven, her husband and their home worker, were all in a six -story hotel in Mandalay, in the center of Myanmar, when he collapsed.

Delays in research operations have added to its agony. Hnin rushed into the devastated city, where the communication lines barely worked, to buy heads and fuel for poorly equipped teams. A hotel director refused to authorize the use of a Creuser, fearing that the building is collapsing. The days passed before the arrival of the Chinese and Russian rescue teams.

“How can I sleep? When I wake up in the middle of the night, I feel like my tears were exhausted. I can’t cry,” said Hnin.

She stands outside the building, calling for the name of her husband, hoping for her response and made offers to minds, praying for the security of her family.

At Mandalay General Hospital, a few minutes by car, doctors barely slept. Patients are treated outside in the burning heat because several buildings are damaged. Some suffered from heat, said a doctor. There is a serious lack of mobile toilets, and some patients and families have developed skin infections due to bad sanitation.

In cities and cities in the center of Myanmar, people continue to sleep outside, either because their houses collapsed, or because they are too afraid to go inside. Some have moved outdoor furniture and sleep in tents marked with their apartment number. Help began to arrive, but residents, especially outside the cities, say that it is not enough. Clean water, food and drugs are desperately necessary. Many are always trapped under the buildings, the smell of decaying bodies spreading.

According to the military junta who governs the country, the earthquake killed 3,100 people. The real number of deaths and the real scale of destruction remain to be emerged. And through Myanmar, the immediate shock of the disaster turns into questions about how the country can rebuild itself.

Urban centers are expected to be shaved and reconstructed almost entirely. But we still do not know how the soldiers besieged and isolated from the country will allow themselves to rebuild. It will cost billions of dollars, and he does not have access to international finances or the legitimacy necessary to obtain money from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, analysts said.

It is also not known how the earthquake could affect the country’s conflict and political crisis. Myanmar was seized by a widespread uprising against the junta rule since the generals took power during a coup in 2021. The army was largely insulted by the public and lost control of large areas of the country.

Desperately trying to hang on to power, he continued air strikes against his opponent for days, even after asking for international assistance. The soldiers finally agreed to take a break while fighting until later this month, although many fear that the bombardment continues as soon as international attention has changed.

The main cities devastated by the earthquake on Friday are under military control. Some have hypothesized that it is perhaps because Naycyidaw, the siege of the power of the junta, was among the seriously affected places that the soldiers made a rare request for international assistance.

The capital, specially designed by paranoid and secret generals in the 2000s, was supposed to be an impenetrable fortress. His grandiose buildings include a presidential palace surrounded by a ditch.

However, Friday earthquake caused destruction. The accommodation of government employees collapsed and trapping families. The Supreme Court has collapsed, the ministry, the parliament and the hospital buildings are either completely or partly destroyed, and pagodas have overturned. The spiral staircase of the palace and the chandelier were destroyed.

“There is no transparency,” said John *, a worker from the Ministry of Transport, the number of deaths in the capital, asking not to give his real name. “Most deaths were among family members, including alumni, children and wives of government employees.”

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the head of the junta, Min Aung Hlaing, acknowledged that certain buildings had been built “negligently”, but boasted that there were “absolutely no gap, falling” from the Buddha’s great vanity project and his throne to represent himself as a buddhism seizure.

The extent of damage to military facilities in Naycyidaw is not known.

The earthquake will undoubtedly be a blow for the morale of the terrestrial troops of Min Aung Hlaing, say the analysts. Ye Myo Hein, a world scholarship holder at the Wilson Center, said that he thought that many soldiers had not been able to get in touch with family members, not only in Naycyidaw but also in other parts of the country that have been strongly affected by the earthquake, due to communication breakdowns.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the junta’s propaganda machinery had worked tirelessly to relaunch morale, he added, “describing his soldiers as the saviors of the nation”.

The United Nations Human Rights Office, however, accused the army on Friday of limiting aid in a critical way. Volunteers, the backbone of rescue efforts, indicate that they are blocked by soldiers, especially when they try to enter the opposition or the disputed areas.

Even in areas under military control, such as Mandalay, the soldiers were notably absent from help efforts.

It is possible that the soldiers simply do not have the workforce. “Most of the troops are attached, desperately defending the basics and territory across the country,” said Richard Horsey, principal advisor for the Myanmar for the crisis group. Even when the soldiers tried to respond, his priorities were often moved, he added.

In Naycyidaw, John had to work to help with a train construction project the day after the earthquake, even if his house had collapsed and the whole city was in a state of crisis. Min Aung Hlaing is “crazy about this train,” said John, who sleeps in his workplace.

Others are in a worse position, especially in Sagaing where international aid has not yet reached a lot.

“Outside the areas with the city’s earthquake, only about 30% of the city’s population receives aid,” said U Nyo *, 64, a merchant. “There is no one to help in the suburbs and other areas outside sagaing. There is a lot of need for food, drinking water and medical assistance. ”

His two-story family home was destroyed, he said. His brother read upstairs when the whole house collapsed, falling from the top floor. Miraculously, the family survived.

During the day, they stay in their courtyard, according to the shadows of the trees to shelter from the intense sun. At night, they stay in a tent. “It is as if the earthquake had destroyed the lives of people in my city,” said U Nyo. People already had trouble surviving even before the disaster.

In the midst of destruction, a question is looming – who will pay so that the cities are rebuilt? At least 20 cities are damaged, depending on the report. China could lend money for individual projects, said Horsey, but it seemed unlikely to trust the regime with large sums, since the generals could not manage an emergency intervention effort.

For communities, this means an extended state of chaos, without appropriate infrastructure. The trauma inflicted on families will take even more time to heal, if ever.

Friday, outside the Great Wall Hotel in Mandalay, the rescuers made bodies on civilians. Hnin is still waiting for news. “I cannot express this feeling. “They are my family.”

* The names have been modified for security reasons