Behind Myanmar's Devastating Earthquake

It's somewhat odd that corporate media has really not reported on the revolution in any substantial way since twenty twenty one, but the earthquake apparently justified a lot of network sending people to Meamma for the first time. Very amusingly, people dming me on Blue Sky and Twitter asking how to get a visa from the Burmese hunter, which is not a thing I've ever done. The last communication I had with them came in the form of a car bomb that they said of near to a place where we were.

But if you're not aware, the earthquake happened on the twenty eighth of March of this year, just before one in the afternoon. It was the biggest earthquake in Meanma. So it's nineteen twelve and it registered seven point seven on the Richter scale, which is huge because it's it's very hard for foreign journalists to get a visa to

enter Memba. The initial reporting focused on Bangkok and the damage done in Thailand, but the epithet was in Sagang, which is near Mandalay, Madelade's second biggest city in Memba, and that was where like the worst of the destruction happened. Almost every street in Mandalay has collapsed buildings. It's a little difficult for us to get a sense of the exact scale of the damage because the Hunter refuses to

allow some media has been allowed in the BBC. I saw like sneaked somebody in It's very difficult for media to move and report freely. And in addition to this, the Hunter has continued to practice of cutting off Internet for people in Mema right.

blocked international aid. They said that people didn't need the quote chocolate bars that the US and other countries were trying to deliver, and that they could exist by like hunting frogs in ditches, was their suggestion. I don't think people realize like how far down the North Korea scale the Burmese Hunter is, but like they're very worried that any interaction with the outside world, specifically with like I guess western neoliberal powers will be damaging for their like

ability to control the population. So for that reason, we don't know how many people have died. Right from what I've heard on the ground, the death toll is substantially higher than the three thy six hundred number being reported. The US Geological Survey estimated that an earthquake of that magnitude in that region would kill between ten and one hundred thousand people. Obviously, that's quite a big kind of

delta there. What I can tell you is that I've heard firsthand that there are some parts of mandolines A going where the stench of rotting bodies is so powerful that people have stopped returning to their homes. There have been so many after shocks that people are still sleeping in the street because they're worried about the damage structures falling down. The UN has an estimate of seventeen million

people across fifty seven townships. Townships are like the administrative districts that are used in miannber a bit affected, with

over nine million people facing severe hardship. And of course this is all compounded by the fact that there were already twenty million people in Mianba who needed humanitarian assistance, and they're about three and a half million internally displaced people as a result of the fighting that's happened after the revolution, So like it really came at a pretty difficult time in a place where the government is not willing to They said after the earth quake, they wanted

international aid, but they've, as we'll see later in this script, they've only accepted it from certain countries. I spoke to a friend who has family in Mandalay yesterday. He told me that they the way they're assessing the damage is using like open source intelligence. They're trying to look in the backgrounds of people's videos on Facebook to like work out if their childhood homes fell down. Right, They were using satellite imaging software when I spoke to them yesterday

to try and ascertain if their families were okay. They told me or Sagang has very famous pagodas, and the pagodas are all on a hill. Apparently a lot of those pagodas have fallen down, and even the hill itself is like listing. So there's been like massive cultural damage as well. Another way in which the damage was compounded by Miamma's politics was the quake struck Like I said, at one pm on a Friday, right which is Friday prayers.

This happened during Ramadans, particularly the day before it'll fitter, which is a very busy day for mosques if you're not aware. Right, successive governments of Memma since the nineteen sixties have refused to allow even basic maintenance for moses.

That means that these buildings were in great states of disrepair, right, Memma, there is an alternationalist Buddhist movement which has been embraced to a great degree by the Hunter, but also limited even like the National League for Democracy, which was the relatively neo liberal aligned party that had previously been in

power in Myanma or somewhat in power. I suppose alternationalist Buddhist monks like Ashin Wurathu and his nine six nine movement have kind of condemned anythink that they did as making them pro Muslim And they have this essentially they have a great replacement theory, right, that Muslims are trying to come in through Bangladesh to replace Buddhists in Mianma.

People's orientalism, I think sometimes stops him seeing that or appreciating that this extends outside of like white global North countries. Yeah.

One thing that I did think that that really touched me in the days after the earthquake was young Buddhist Bamar, people of the majority ethnicity, reaching out to me and being like, hey man, this happened in Friday prayers to Ramadan, and it has devastated the Muslim population, Like thousands of people, hundreds of mosques have gone and thousands of people are trapped in a rubble and like no one's talking about it?

Why is no we're talking about it? This is terrible and like it would have been inconceivable to hear young Bama Buddhist people so concerned with the well being of like their Muslim countrymen before the coup in twenty twenty one. This was a country that had been manufacturing consent for genocide against its Muslim minorities for four or five years by that point, right specifically on Facebook. That's a behind the bath this episode on this you can also listen

if you're new to the show. Robert and I have made two scripted series about the revolution in me Amma, which will include in the show notes. But like that change to a real genuine solidarity and care between these two groups was really touching in the like moments after the earthquake, in the dates after the earthquake. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about the revolution and I want to talk about how the revolution has been responding to this and the impact

has had on the revolution. We are back, and of course the revolution hasn't stopped because of the earthquake. Right, the conflict is still ongoing, and the PDFs and their allied ethnic bsiness organizations are still fighting against the Hunter. In fact, within an hour of the earthquake, the Hunter began using paramotors to drop bombs on Hangule village and Sagang. This has been a thing that they've started to do recently.

In a sense, I guess it's a good sign because it shows that maybe their jets and other aircraft are in a poor state of repair, or that they're struggling to keep enough of them airborne. Initially, I wondered if they were using the paramotors because their runways have been damaged, but there doesn't seem to be the case. They've been striking just as much as they ever did, which is unfortunate.

Satellite images or reports of my source on the ground suggests that they're able to continue carrying out bombing rates at a pretty similar rate from when they did before. Despite this, the National Unity Government, which is kind of the shadow government composed mostly of people who are elected and then deposed by the coup in twenty twenty one and the PDF who in theory are commanded by the National Unity Government, called a two week ceasefire right after

the earthquake to allow for like a humanitarian pause. The Three Brotherhood Alliance, which is an alliance of the three month powerful ethnic resistance organizations in Myanmar, also called what they called a humanitarian pause for a month. In both cases they said they wouldn't undertake offensive operations, but they would defend themselves right because I think they had a CeNSE that the Hunter wasn't going to stop attacking them.

The Hunter did declare its own ceasfire on April third, and the Kachin In Dependence Army, which is another ethnic residence organization, followed shortly thereafter. Notably, that ceasefire from the Hunter came the day after its troops fire on a Chinese Red Cross convoy, which is not a great look for them.

will go. Given Marcus Leninism MAUS and is definitely not the majority ideology the revolution. Most people are committed to some form of federal democracy, which when you speak to different fighters, varies from like we want what you guys have in the US to something more akin to the democratic con federalism that people might be familiar with in

ra Java. China is competing with Russia in me and mar So both of them are interested in supporting the Hunter right like, and obviously both their ideologies are far from the liberatory. They're interested in propping up a totalitarian state. So we have seen both Russia and China send support to the Hunter, send like rescue teams after the earthquake. Meanwhile, the US offered two million dollars, which I was kind of surprisingly offered.

it would see as like someone with adversarial interests. Russia is still interested in just kind of projecting itself as a global power, even as it continues to shrink of every day in terms of its global ability to project power. But there definitely are both Chinese and Russian assistance helping

the Miamma Hunter. Now, meanwhile, the US doesn't seem to give a shit what happens here now like this is kind of not that it by the administration was doing very much either, but at least we had USAID and USIP was very invested in MEMR and actually did a really good job of kind of almost like being the Foreign Affairs not branch, but they explained the revolution to the world, like whenever a journalist wanted to understand the

revolution in Memr, it was USIP they went to. Obviously, all the contents that have a USIP have now been doged,

which is a shame. So despite the ceasefire, right I said, they fired on these Chinese troops, the Hunter has in fact not stop bombing earthquake struck areas since the earthquake madele APDF who I'm in contact with the other revolutionary forces in the area that was most affected by the earthquake on April seventh, told me that they were aware of ten strikes in their area of operations since the earthquake.

Three months old baby and a ten year old child were killed in an air raid on Niicar village and Papun township that was in Corrent State. On April tenth, they bombed a school and something that the and likes to do a lot that They dropped two five hundred pound bombs on a food court. They then circled back and dropped another bomb on the people responding to and giving aid to the people they'd initially bombed in the food court by food court here, Just to clarify, I'm

not talking about like at the shopping mall. I'm talking about like a market where people can buy like prepared food. Right. They've killed the best I can collate from various sources, at least seventy two people and injured about one hundred people in addition to thousands who died after the earthquake. There are also reports that hunter quote unquote recruiters here

are engaging in forced conscription in the disaster zone. I read of at least one person who was on a search and rescue team, like they were a trained search and rescue volunteer, right, so they were moving rebel to rescue people, and they were forcibly conscripted while they were doing that. Obviously, that's had a chilling effect on people going out to help others. Right, what the Hunter is

not doing is rescuing its citizens. The military is detested in most of me and mar even in the areas that it controls, and its failure to even try and track people rescued on the rubber won't help this. There was a video that went viral recently of Hunter troops literally a line of soldiers rescuing bricks. They've gone to a collapsed building and they're inspecting the bricks to see if the bricks a whole, and then passing them down the lines and stacking them up.

They spent twenty four hours sitting in an airport waiting for their visa to be approved, and then they spent one day working in search and rescue efforts before being told that search and rescue efforts had now finished and they were to go home. So they traveled around the entire world and didn't save a single life abundance it's great, presumably because the hunter wanted to plicate China. A Taiwanese

team was straight up refused entry into Meenmar. Taiwan had a search and rescue team that they were willing to say zend who could have saved yourble lives, and that they weren't allowed to enter. All tourist visas have been suspended, so it's not like the Hunter is like overwhelmed with visa applications, but they're not allowing certain rescue teams to

enter from countries. I guess they're not politically aligned with This kind of horrific indifference to human suffering has characterized a toutmudor for decades, and it's really unlikely to change. As it grows even more desperate and it loses even more territory, it's just going to clamp down harder and harder on its people. The one in the liberated areas. Aid is being mobilized using the mutual aid structures which

you've existed for decades. In the absence of the state, in significant and growing parts of ME and MA, people are relying on each other instead of the government for aid, and that has its benefits, right, Like people have been out rescuing people from the rebel, but they're also desperately

short of resources. I spoke to mandal APDF rescue team at the first week of April and they literally sent me a They have a notebook of a list of like we've run out of gorz, we've run out of towny ks, we've run out of adhesive dressings, we've run out of elastic bandages, right, they're like the little nuts and bolts of saving people's lives they run out of. We did a fund raising campaign for them through behind the Bus. We raised nearly two thousand dollars, which is great.

So they're restocking their supplies, which is fantastic, But that's just one township. All across the country, people are struggling for the basic supplies that they need to save lives. The military has also blocked aid and medicine from entering their areas. Right, so the military controls a lot of roadblocks and it uses its control of those roadblocks to stop AIDA medicine. Often it's kind of hoarding it in

the capital city, which is Napidor. People not familiar and Napidor is a city that they've couldn't have built for itself to govern from, I mean seat of kings. Also in Napidor right now is the US AID agency Samaritans Purse. Are you familiar with Samaritans perse keratin?

that Christians would be going to services at churches. Right the Kareni Christians this year I saw celebrated Christmas in caves because they were so afraid of being bombed. Right, Like, I have no idea what logical leap you have to make? Are yeah, it's and they're like they're not even at the Insagang. The only people. The only international aida aware of that was able to make it to Sagang was

a Malaysian team who were able to save some lives. Unfortunately, there were really strong rains this week and that made all the collapse structures even more unstable. And the Malaysian team I saw have now returned home. We're going to take another ad break here and when we come back, we will talk about what you can do t help. All right, and we're back first, I want to, I guess have some good news. Despite everything. The military has

still been taking massive losses. The all Burma students Democratic Front captured remaining hunter positions in Indoor. They're almost Democratic Front are a group that's been around since nineteen eighty eight, right, and they have armed up and re entered the revolution since twenty twenty one. One of the things that they captured on Monday was a underground Japanese field hospital from World War II, which I guess had been like entrench position.

I guess they're not covered technically by the ceasefire, but there was a unit under the National Uniti government's command that operated with them, and from what I understand, this began as a defensive action. They'd surrounded the Hunter. I think it's called Japan Cave Hill. They'd surrounded them on Japan Cave Hill for a long time and then the Hunter, obviously seeing the earthquake and everything thereafter, decided that now was the time for them to break out of this circlement.

They did not break out, They took a fat l and as a result, they've all been captured now. Meanwhile, in chin Land, if people haven't listened to the episode, I did a couple of weeks ago with a Zad from the Anti Fashis Internationalists Front. I was just going back and listening to that to understand chin Land. But the AIF and a lot of their allied forces from a Chinland Defense Force and a chin Brotherhood had a significant victory in capturing the rest of the Hunter's positions

in Flam last week. And I think it's very much like on the table that we will see the whole of chin Land liberated in the next few months or by the end of the year, which would be great to see. So people are wondering, like what they can do to help, right, And I think it's a very valid question because I saw today that the UN was meeting with the Hunter in NAPI door and I just have no faith that any money that goes to the Hunter is going to get to people who need it.

And one of them that I wanted to highlight, and Robert and I were very familiar with their work from the last time that we were over reporting is Community Partists International. CPI are really cool because they work by empowering members of the local community to be health volunteers, as opposed to like dropping in some like doctors from America, right or doctors from the United Kingdom or whatever, and then when those people leave, they take their skills with them.

CPI the thing is to educate folks within the community so that they can take care of one another. And I sor that CPI has a matching donations thing right now, which is pretty cool. So like if you donate, someone else will match your donation and that will double the amount that you receive otherwise. I will provide a list of mutual aid funds that have been shared with me. Most of them are like GoFundMe or things like that.

I'll put it all in the show description. They've all been vetted, and like I know, people are sometimes relucted to give to go fundmes and they'd rather give to like a five oh one C three or an organization which has a little bit more I guess, like online presence. In this case, you have to understand that like a lot of orgs just aren't operating in the liberated areas. The two that I'm aware of CPI and Free Burma Ranges right I spoke to Dave from Free Burma Ranges.

They're trying to get to as many people as it can as well. That would be another great place to donate. And I would include a list of vetted gofundmes if you want to have a look through those and see if any of them kind of speaks to you more, you can do that too. What this will mean for the future of Memma. We don't know yet, right, We have really no sense of how many people have died, of what it's done to the Hunter's ability to control

those areas. But until the Revolution has a way to stop planes bombing people, we will continue to see the same dynamic, right of the Hunter losing terrain on the ground, pulling back its soldiers and then bombing civilians in the areas that it's lost. That is its game plan. It's continuing to get more drones from China. It's getting aircraft,

munitions and jet fuel from China. Until there is an embargo on jet fuel and munitions to the Hunter, then we will see this same pattern continue, Right, they lose terrain, they bomb a school, they lose terrain, they bomb a hospital. It's the same stuff that Israel's doing, and they've of course previously been armed by Israel as well. But we don't see as much solidarity for the people at Burma.

If you want to stay in touch with what's happening on the ground, I think the Irawiti I Double r a Wa DDY does a really good job of doing daily summaries right now, so I would suggest checking out what's happening there, and of course we'll keep you updated on developments in the Spring Revolution as they come.