Protest as quake-hit Myanmar junta chief joins Bangkok summit
By AFP
April 3, 2025
People line up for food being distributed in Sagaing, a week after the deadly earthquake - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Damon WAKE
Protesters displayed a banner calling Myanmar’s junta chief a “murderer” as he joined a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after a huge earthquake killed thousands, leaving desperate survivors pleading for food and shelter.
More than 3,000 people are confirmed dead after the 7.7-magnitude quake, and the United Nations estimates that up to three million may have been affected in some way — many left without shelter after their homes were destroyed.
Many nations have sent aid and rescue teams, but on the ground in some of the worst-hit areas there is little sign of Myanmar’s ruling military helping survivors.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will hold talks with leaders from Bay of Bengal littoral nations at a plush Bangkok hotel on Friday.
The decision to invite him has drawn criticism, and outside the venue protesters hung a banner from a bridge reading: “We do not welcome murderer Min Aung Hlaing.”
In Sagaing, the Myanmar city close to the epicentre of last week’s quake and where an estimated 80 percent of buildings have been damaged, AFP journalists saw desperate scenes as hundreds of exhausted, hungry survivors scrambled for supplies.
Teams of citizen volunteers from around Myanmar piled into Sagaing in trucks laden with water, oil, rice and other basic necessities.
With so many homes in Sagaing and neighbouring Mandalay left uninhabitable by the quake, survivors have been sleeping in the streets for a week, and are badly in need of proper shelter.
A patch of land in Mandalay — a dustbowl covered in trash — has sprouted a tent city of people from ruined homes or others too scared to return because of aftershocks.
“There are many people who are in need,” cab driver Hla Myint Po, 30, now living in tents with his family, told AFP.
“Sometimes when donors bring things it’s chaos”
While the crisis rages in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing sat down Thursday night for a gala dinner with fellow leaders from the BIMSTEC group at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok.
The veteran general ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a 2021 coup, triggering a bloody civil war, and has been accused of war crimes and serious human rights abuses.
Min Aung Hlaing is under multiple global sanctions and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for him for alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya Muslims.
Even as the Myanmar people struggled with the aftermath of the quake, the military carried out air strikes on rebel groups, drawing angry condemnation from international powers.
But the junta chief was given red carpet treatment by the Thai government as he arrived for the meeting with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and other leaders from Bay of Bengal nations.
– ‘Deplorable’ –
Myanmar’s shadow opposition National Unity Government (NUG) condemned his presence at the summit, calling it an affront to justice “given the immense suffering has inflicted on the people of Myanmar”.
“Allowing the junta leader and his representatives to participate in regional and international forums risks legitimising an illegal regime,” the NUG said in a statement.
Yadanar Maung of the Justice for Myanmar campaign group said it was “deplorable” that Thailand and BIMSTEC were welcoming him.
“This legitimises and emboldens a military junta that the people of Myanmar have been resisting for over four years,” Yadanar Maung said in a statement.
Shunned and sanctioned by many Western countries since the coup, the junta has turned to close allies Beijing and Moscow for support as it struggles to get the upper hand in a complex, multi-sided civil war.
BIMSTEC is Min Aung Hlaing’s first foreign trip outside of China, Russia or Belarus since he attended another regional summit in Indonesia in 2021 soon after the coup.
The Bangkok meeting affords the isolated leader a rare chance for face-to-face diplomacy with key regional powerbrokers including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
BIMSTEC host Thailand has proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday.
The devastation wreaked by the quake, Myanmar’s biggest in decades, prompted several key armed groups in the civil war to call a temporary ceasefire to allow aid to get through — followed by the military.
But all sides still say they reserve the right to act in self-defence, and there have already been reports of sporadic fighting.
India’s foreign ministry said the so-called “Quad Partners” — which also include Australia, Japan and the United States — welcomed “recent commitments to temporary, partial ceasefires”.
By AFP
April 3, 2025
People line up for food being distributed in Sagaing, a week after the deadly earthquake - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Damon WAKE
Protesters displayed a banner calling Myanmar’s junta chief a “murderer” as he joined a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after a huge earthquake killed thousands, leaving desperate survivors pleading for food and shelter.
More than 3,000 people are confirmed dead after the 7.7-magnitude quake, and the United Nations estimates that up to three million may have been affected in some way — many left without shelter after their homes were destroyed.
Many nations have sent aid and rescue teams, but on the ground in some of the worst-hit areas there is little sign of Myanmar’s ruling military helping survivors.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will hold talks with leaders from Bay of Bengal littoral nations at a plush Bangkok hotel on Friday.
The decision to invite him has drawn criticism, and outside the venue protesters hung a banner from a bridge reading: “We do not welcome murderer Min Aung Hlaing.”
In Sagaing, the Myanmar city close to the epicentre of last week’s quake and where an estimated 80 percent of buildings have been damaged, AFP journalists saw desperate scenes as hundreds of exhausted, hungry survivors scrambled for supplies.
Teams of citizen volunteers from around Myanmar piled into Sagaing in trucks laden with water, oil, rice and other basic necessities.
With so many homes in Sagaing and neighbouring Mandalay left uninhabitable by the quake, survivors have been sleeping in the streets for a week, and are badly in need of proper shelter.
A patch of land in Mandalay — a dustbowl covered in trash — has sprouted a tent city of people from ruined homes or others too scared to return because of aftershocks.
“There are many people who are in need,” cab driver Hla Myint Po, 30, now living in tents with his family, told AFP.
“Sometimes when donors bring things it’s chaos”
While the crisis rages in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing sat down Thursday night for a gala dinner with fellow leaders from the BIMSTEC group at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok.
The veteran general ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a 2021 coup, triggering a bloody civil war, and has been accused of war crimes and serious human rights abuses.
Min Aung Hlaing is under multiple global sanctions and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for him for alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya Muslims.
Even as the Myanmar people struggled with the aftermath of the quake, the military carried out air strikes on rebel groups, drawing angry condemnation from international powers.
But the junta chief was given red carpet treatment by the Thai government as he arrived for the meeting with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and other leaders from Bay of Bengal nations.
– ‘Deplorable’ –
Myanmar’s shadow opposition National Unity Government (NUG) condemned his presence at the summit, calling it an affront to justice “given the immense suffering has inflicted on the people of Myanmar”.
“Allowing the junta leader and his representatives to participate in regional and international forums risks legitimising an illegal regime,” the NUG said in a statement.
Yadanar Maung of the Justice for Myanmar campaign group said it was “deplorable” that Thailand and BIMSTEC were welcoming him.
“This legitimises and emboldens a military junta that the people of Myanmar have been resisting for over four years,” Yadanar Maung said in a statement.
Shunned and sanctioned by many Western countries since the coup, the junta has turned to close allies Beijing and Moscow for support as it struggles to get the upper hand in a complex, multi-sided civil war.
BIMSTEC is Min Aung Hlaing’s first foreign trip outside of China, Russia or Belarus since he attended another regional summit in Indonesia in 2021 soon after the coup.
The Bangkok meeting affords the isolated leader a rare chance for face-to-face diplomacy with key regional powerbrokers including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
BIMSTEC host Thailand has proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday.
The devastation wreaked by the quake, Myanmar’s biggest in decades, prompted several key armed groups in the civil war to call a temporary ceasefire to allow aid to get through — followed by the military.
But all sides still say they reserve the right to act in self-defence, and there have already been reports of sporadic fighting.
India’s foreign ministry said the so-called “Quad Partners” — which also include Australia, Japan and the United States — welcomed “recent commitments to temporary, partial ceasefires”.
By AFP
April 5, 2025
The March 28 quake flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in thousands of deaths - Copyright AFP Zaw Htun
The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen above 3,300, state media said Saturday, as the United Nations aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation.
The March 28 quake flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, according to new figures published by state media.
More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses.
A United Nations estimate suggests that more than three million people may have been affected by the 7.7-magnitude quake, compounding previous challenges caused by four years of civil war.
The UN’s top aid official on Saturday met with victims in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay — situated close to the epicentre and now grappling with severe damage across the city.
“The destruction is staggering,” Tom Fletcher wrote in a post on X.
“The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar”.
The new toll was announced after the country’s military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing returned from a rare foreign trip to a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, where he met with leaders including the prime ministers of Thailand and India.
The general’s attendance at the summit courted controversy, with protesters at the venue displaying a banner calling him a “murderer” and anti-junta groups condemning his inclusion.
His armed forces have ruled Myanmar since a 2021 coup, when they wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a multi-sided conflict that has yet to be resolved.
The junta has reportedly conducted dozens of attacks since the earthquake, including at least 16 since a temporary truce was announced on Wednesday, the UN said Friday.
Years of fighting have left Myanmar’s economy and infrastructure in tatters, significantly hampering international efforts to provide relief since the quake.
China, Russia and India were among the first countries to provide support, sending rescue teams to Myanmar to help locate survivors.
The United States has traditionally been at the forefront of international disaster relief, but President Donald Trump has dismantled the country’s humanitarian aid agency.
Washington said Friday it was adding $7 million on top of an earlier $2 million in assistance to Myanmar.
Lessons and liquids: buried alive in Myanmar’s earthquake
By AFP
April 3, 2025
Tin Maung Htwe was rescued after five days of being trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Hla-Hla HTAY
Entombed under his hotel bed for five days in the debris, two things enabled teacher Tin Maung Htwe to survive Myanmar’s devastating earthquake: old school lessons and his own urine.
The primary school headmaster was on a training course in Sagaing, the closest place to the epicentre, when the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck.
The 47-year-old remembered a decades-old school lesson to shelter under a bed if the world starts to shake.
“As soon as I went under the bed, the whole hotel fell down and was blocked. All I could afford was to say ‘save me’,” he said.
“I was shouting ‘save me, save me’.”
The Swal Taw Nann guesthouse where he was staying was reduced to a pile of bricks and twisted metal strips, the broken shell of its top storey resting on the remains of those below, and Tin Maung Htwe in a ground floor room underneath it all.
“I felt as though I was in hell,” he said weakly, an oxygen tube running to his nose and two intravenous drips into his reduced frame.
“My body was burning hot and all I needed was water. I couldn’t get that water from anywhere.
“So I have to refill the water my body needed with fluids coming out of my body.”
— ‘I am free’ —
The intensity of destruction in Sagaing, closer to the epicentre, is far higher than in neighbouring Mandalay, with a much greater proportion of its buildings reduced to piles of debris.
Great gouges have been opened up in the main road towards it –- jamming traffic and hampering those trying to help the victims -– and the Ava bridge across the Irrawaddy linking the two cities is down, one end of six of its 10 spans resting in the placid waters.
Residents said the Myanmar Red Cross were recovering bodies from the site and were not expecting to find anyone alive when they located him, and a Malaysian rescue team was called in to extract him.
One of eight siblings, his sister Nan Yone, 50, was one of several of his relatives watching and waiting as they worked at the site.
“I can’t describe it,” said Nan Yone of his rescue on Wednesday.
“I was dancing, crying and beating my chest because I was so happy.”
When he arrived at Sagaing’s main hospital he gave her a thumbs-up and told her: “Sister I am very good.”
“His will is very strong and I think that is why he survived,” she said on the day he was rescued.
As she spoke nurses tended to her semi-conscious brother on a outdoor gurney, his head lolling occasionally from side to side.
No one is being treated indoors at the facility, for fear of an aftershock wreaking more havoc.
“I am glad I am free now,” Tin Maung Htwe told AFP.
“I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I was dead. I didn’t die so now I can do whatever I wish.”
He wants to go back to his work as a schoolteacher. But he added: “I am considering becoming a Buddhist monk.”
No comments:
Post a Comment