Even as the earthquake death toll rose in Myanmar, the junta’s bombs kept falling
By Michael Ruffles and Lucy Macken
The Myanmar military kept dropping bombs on parts of its own country even after Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake left at least 1600 people dead and large parts of the South-East Asian nation in ruins.
Sean Turnell, a Sydney academic who served as an economic adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said bombing in the country’s four-year civil war had struck Karen state after the quake – a key rebel stronghold – while other reports from Myanmar suggested areas including Sagaing, northern Shan and Bago had been targeted by jets and drones.
Myanmar’s military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (centre in green) inspects a damaged road in Naypyidaw .Credit: AP
United Nations Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews also said there had been attacks after the quake, telling the BBC that it was “nothing short of incredible” that the military was continuing to “drop bombs when you are trying to rescue people”. The junta asked for international humanitarian assistance after the quake on Friday.
“I’m calling upon the junta to just stop, stop any of its military operations,” Andrews said.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government announced a partial ceasefire on Saturday night for two weeks to facilitate earthquake relief efforts. It said its armed wing, the People’s Defence Force, would collaborate with the UN and other non-government organisations “to ensure security, transportation and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps” in areas it controls.
Turnell said he was worried for Suu Kyi, whose fate is unknown after the earthquake. She has been in prison in Myanmar since the coup in February 2021. Turnell also spent 650 days in a Myanmar jail after the coup, on trumped-up espionage charges.
“We were all in the political prison together that’s right in the area where there’s very significant damage, near where the control tower of Naypyidaw international airport collapsed, killing everyone in it,” he said.
“There have been a lot of government buildings damaged, and that’s been worrying me. Plus there are a lot of prominent political prisoners in Mandalay prison as well.”
Turnell said when he last heard from sources with direct knowledge about Suu Kyi’s condition four months ago, she was in “OK” health, but he was concerned for her welfare because she has been used by the junta as a “human shield” as it has lost control of large parts of the country.
“She’s 80 in June and conditions in Myanmar prisons are not good at the best of times, and of course, now it’s going to be considerably worse,” he said.
Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was jailed after being ousted.Credit: AP
Turnell said it was difficult to get reliable information. “Not hearing anything is not a comfort. It’s just that there is no information. Some ugly and horrible surprises might still be coming,” he said.
As the death toll rose from Friday’s earthquake, members of Australia’s Myanmar community were concerned about sourcing accurate information about rescue efforts, and the types of foreign aid being sent.
Eiei Kyaw, 49, said on Saturday she was in the fortunate position of being able to check on the welfare of her family in Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, given her work in the finance department of Myanmar media organisation Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).
Despite DVB being one of the country’s largest independent news organisations, it was forced underground after the military junta seized control four years ago, and is broadcast from nearby Thailand.
Sean Turnell, former economics adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, at home in Sydney.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“Most journalists in Myanmar can’t say they are journalists any more, so most of them operate as citizen journalists,” Kyaw said. “That’s how I know from my sources that there are now more than 350 people dead.”
Khin Moe, 53, who arrived in Australia six months ago from Yangon, had less success getting information about the welfare of her brother, sister and parents at home.
“They are OK now, but I couldn’t make contact with anyone at home or get any information for hours after the earthquake,” Moe said.
Kyaw and Moe joined other members of the Myanmar community at the University of Technology Sydney for this weekend’s Australian debut of DVB’s Peacock Film Festival, celebrating independent journalism and filmmaking from Myanmar.
Kyaw said she was not surprised to read the military government had made an international appeal for help given the scale of the destruction, the collapse of so many buildings in and around Mandalay, and buckled train tracks and collapsed roads.
As DVB footage broadcast the arrival of 37 rescue workers from China, and the United Nations allocated $US5 million ($7.9 million) to relief efforts, Kyaw said she doubted all the necessary aid would be used for its intended purpose.
“Of that $US5 million, there will be $US1 million for the people, and the other $US4 million to the government,” Kyaw said.
It was a sentiment shared by warehouse manager at logistics giant Toll Group, Aung Naing.
“[Foreign] money sent to the junta will be used, but it will be mainly used for propaganda and in support of the government’s troops and supporters,” said Naing, 56. “It needs to go to organisations that are on the ground supporting the people.”
Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates consultancy, said from Bangkok that a creative approach was required as the epicentre of the earthquake was “also the epicentre of the ethnic Burman resistance” to the junta.
“Those areas are war zones,” he said. “It’s very unlikely that those areas are going to get the kinds of assistance that they need.
“These earthquakes happened in the middle of Friday prayers … there are people who died in mosque collapses across the country.”
Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson said it was becoming clear the areas hit hardest were military-controlled, but there were casualties across the country.
“This is a brutal military that is essentially in a state of war against many of its own population and has committed years of atrocities against them, including crimes against humanity and acts of genocide,” she said. “About half of the country is not even under military control.”
Turnell said: “I’m just hoping the Australian government and the international community more broadly does its homework, so that [aid] doesn’t end up in the hands of the junta.”
With AP
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