Myanmar: Open group graves after a strong earthquake
A few days after the Strong earthquake of 7.7 degrees that hit the central Myanmar, the gloomy reality begins to be perceived.
In a cemetery in Shanghake, a city in the central Myanmar at the center of the earthquake, the bodies accumulate.
« The carcasses emerge a bad smell from yesterday. Today, it is beyond any description. The corpses cannot yet be removed from the city and the rescue teams have not arrived, « says Aye Moe, a 20 -year -old, a Shanghake resident in the Guardian.
Officially, the death toll from the earthquake has exceeded 2,000. Many are afraid of being much more.
Group graves
« They are forced to place 10 carcasses per grave, » says Aye Moe. « When there is not enough space there (in Shangaw), they have to take them to Madeley for cremation, but there are not enough ovens. »
Foreign media in previous years in the country have been largely forced to go to neighboring Thailand after the imposition of the junta and the war that then began between the regime and resistance groups.
Set communications due to the earthquake and the difficult flow of information in anyway are preventing information, but the more the days go by, the more details come to light.
« Everything is treated by the same means. We still don’t know the exact number of corpses, « says Aye Moe. « In the Central Hospital, there are both patients and corpses, and the situation is starting to manage. There is no human resources and there are hardly young people at all – some have fled to the forest (because of the junta and possibly to join some resistance groups), others have left the country. «
In Shanghake, Aye Moe says rescue teams had not yet arrived Monday.
Aung Gyi, 25 years old, another Shaggy resident, says: « Everyone is having difficulties. » The city, he says, has been turned into « ruins » with people looking for desperate basic supplies such as food, water and mosquitoes. «
Tails for commissions to Shanghake
« The main problem is that two -storey and three -storey buildings have collapsed and people trapped cannot come out, » he says, adding that one of Shanghake’s main bridges has been damaged, preventing heavy vehicles needed for rescue operations.
« What we do not know for yet nothing is the mountainous areas, » he adds. « And we have no news from the many monasteries – and women’s monasteries – that exist in these areas. »
Hard to get help
Emergency assistance from countries such as China, India, Russia, the US and all Southeast Asia are beginning to enter the country, mainly through the capital Naipita, but its rapid tradition is complicated not only by the catastrophes caused by the earthquake but also by its logistics.
The consequences of the earthquake in Myanmar have overloaded the healthcare system, the World Health Organization said, with rescue operations facing « significant obstacles such as the damaged road network, unstable communications and complications associated with civil conflict ».
In Myanmar’s second largest city, Mandaley, where parts of it have been leveled, people sleep on the streets for fear of aftershocks.
« People are trying to help each other, » says Dr. Nang Wyne, a Burman doctor based in Australia, who is trying to help her relatives, colleagues and friends in the city. « The system has not been set up from the beginning, there is no disaster planning. »
Some help has begun to arrive in the city, she says, with her colleagues also setting up rough clinics. However, delays in providing emergency assistance have already caused additional loss of lives, which could have been avoided.
« 1,700 is not the real number of dead, » he says. « Even in a city in the city of Mandalay there would be more than that. »
