Survivors still being found after Myanmar's earthquake but military attacks could harm relief effort

Chicago Tribune

02-04-2025

BANGKOK — Rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar's capital on Wednesday and a third from a guesthouse in another city, five days after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
But most teams were finding only bodies, and concerns were growing that continued military attacks on resistance forces could jeopardize relief efforts.
The quake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. The death toll rose to 2,886 Wednesday, with another 4,639 injured, according to state television MRTV. Local reports suggest much higher figures.
The earthquake came amid civil war in Myanmar, making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse. More than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million were in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.
Two of the major armed resistance forces fighting the military, which seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, have announced ceasefires to facilitate the humanitarian response to the earthquake, but the military hasn't relented in its attacks.
'Once again they are putting regime survival above the interests of people, even at a time of calamity,' said Richard Horsey, senior adviser for Myanmar with the Crisis Group.
Dramatic rescue in Myanmar capital
In the capital, Naypyitaw, a team of Turkish and local rescue workers used an endoscopic camera to locate Naing Lin Tun on a lower floor of the damaged hotel where he worked. They pulled him gingerly through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded him on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was first trapped.
Shirtless and covered in dust, he appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported later in the day that another man was saved from the same building, more than 121 hours after the quake struck. Both were age 26.
Another man was rescued by a team of Malaysian and local crews from a collapsed guesthouse in the Sagaing township, near the epicenter of the earthquake close to Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday, raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 35 injured, primarily at the construction site.
Military has rejected a ceasefire
The Three Brotherhood Alliance, one of a powerful group of militias that has taken a large swath of the country from the military, announced a unilateral one-month ceasefire on Tuesday to facilitate the humanitarian response. The shadow opposition National Unity Government founded by lawmakers ousted in 2021 had already called a ceasefire for its forces.
The announcements put pressure on the military government to follow suit, said Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based analyst with the International Institute of Strategic Studies who runs its Myanmar Conflict Map project.
Even if the military does, it's too early to say whether a pause in fighting could lead to something longer lasting, he said.
The head of Myanmar's military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected the idea of a ceasefire so far.
Claims of an attack on a Chinese Red Cross convoy
Most recently, an opposition militia belonging to the Brotherhood Alliance reported that the military fired on a relief convoy of nine Chinese Red Cross vehicles late Tuesday in the northern part of Shan state near Ohn Ma Tee village.
The Ta'ang National Liberation Army said that the Chinese Red Cross was bringing supplies to Mandalay and had reported its route to the military.
But Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military government, said that the convoy hadn't notified authorities of its route ahead of time, MRTV reported. While not mentioning the Red Cross, he said that security forces had fired into the air to deter a convoy that refused to stop near Ohn Ma Tee village, the site of recent fighting with the TNLA.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun didn't comment on the attack.
Neighboring China is economically important to Myanmar, and also one of the military's largest suppliers of weapons, along with Russia.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was looking into the matter.
More international aid heads to Myanmar
Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Australia on Wednesday said it was providing another $4.5 million, in addition to $1.25 million it had already committed, and had a rapid response team on the ground.
India has flown in aid and sent two navy ships with supplies as well as providing around 200 rescue workers. Multiple other countries have sent teams, including 270 people from China, 212 from Russia and 122 from the United Arab Emirates.
A three-person team from the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited U.S. resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation. Washington has said it would provide $2 million in emergency assistance.
Extent of devastation beyond major cities is still unclear
Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.
Many areas are without power, telephone or cellphone connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.
In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.
In the area of Inle Lake, northeast of the capital, many people died when homes built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed in the earthquake, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported without providing specific figures.