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

Bangkok, Apr 2 (AP) Rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar's capital early Wednesday, but most teams were finding only bodies five days after a massive earthquake hit, and concerns were growing that continued military attacks on resistance forces could jeopardise relief efforts.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake 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 in the midst of a 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 has not 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, the 26-year-old 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 another 26-year-old was saved from the same building, more than 121 hours after the quake struck.

Another man was rescued by a team of Malaysian and local crews from a collapsed home in the Sagaing township, near the epicentre of the earthquake close to Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay.

The earthquake also rocked neighbouring 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.

“There will be some, especially in the international community, who will hope that a humanitarian pause could be a building block for a wider de-escalation, but there will also be strong resistance from parts of Myanmar society that reject the idea of further negotiations with the regime,” he told The Associated Press.

“It would require very deft and active diplomacy to transform a humanitarian pause into something more lasting. And that's not guaranteed," he added.

So far the head of Myanmar's military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected the idea of a ceasefire.

The military government maintains that even if resistance groups are not engaging in combat, they continue to organise and train and those actions are “still considered attacks,” the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

It added that the military “will continue to take necessary security measures.” The Three Brotherhood Alliance is not known to have launched any attacks since the earthquake, but at least one other resistance group has, and the military has continued with airstrikes and other assaults.

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 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 regime, said that the convoy had not notified authorities of its route ahead of time, MRTV reported. While not mentioning the Red Cross, he said 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 did not comment on the attack, but said “relief supplies provided by the Red Cross Society of China to Myanmar have arrived in Myanmar and are on the way to Mandalay." He added that “rescue personnel and supplies are safe.” Neighbouring 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 organisations with the monumental task ahead.

Australia on Wednesday said it was providing another USD 4.5 million, in addition to USD 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 some 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 US Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited US 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 USD 2 million in emergency assistance.

Extent of devastation beyond major cities is still unclear Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, which was near the epicentre of the earthquake, and the capital Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometres north of Mandalay.

Many areas are without power, telephone or cell connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.

In Singu township, about 65 kilometres 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. (AP) GRS GRS

Source: PTI