Myanmar and Thailand earthquake live: More than 140 dead in Myanmar as dozens trapped under Bangkok skyscraper – UK Times

Myanmar has indeed faced tragedy after tragedy in the last 80 years. The leader of its independence movement, Aung San, was assassinated in 1947, just as he was poised to become Burma’s first post-independence prime minister, reports Annabel Venning.

Then in 1962, just as Burma’s ethnic minority groups were about to get greater autonomy, the military staged a coup, renamed the country Myanmar, and so began decades of repressive military rule that continues today.

Aung San’s daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been imprisoned by the military on and off since 1989. In 2020, she led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to election victory but the military prevented the NLD from taking power. In December 2022, they sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to 30 years in prison, later reduced to 27, under trumped-up charges of corruption and treason, meaning that she will not be released until she is over 100.

An estimated 200,000 people are believed to have died of disease and starvation in 2008 after Myanmar’s military regime refused to allow aid agencies access in the wake devastating floods brought by Cyclone Nargis.

Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, says: “There’s a feeling in Myanmar of: ‘Not this, after everything else that we have suffered.’”

Allies China and Russia have dispatched rescue teams to Myanmar after it was rocked by a powerful earthquake, killing 140 people.

A 37-member team from China’s Yunnan province reached the city of Yangon early Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The team carried emergency relief supplies such as life detectors, earthquake early warning systems and drones, and it is expected to assist in disaster relief and medical treatment efforts.

Russia’s emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from the official Tass news wire.

“Based on orders from the Russian president and emergencies minister, a group of Russian rescuers has departed to Myanmar on two planes from Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow to help address the aftermath of a powerful earthquake,” Tass reported that a ministry spokesperson said.

Ireland is ready to assist those affected the earthquake, deputy premier Simon Harris has said.

Speaking at The Curragh in Co Kildare, Mr Harris said that the thoughts of the people of Ireland are with those affected by the quake.

Mr Harris – who is also Ireland’s foreign affairs minister – said his department is not aware of any Irish citizens impacted, but said its embassy in Thailand is available for assistance.

“My thoughts and I know the thoughts of people right around the country are with the people of Myanmar and Thailand after the very significant earthquake today,” he said.

“The Irish Government stands ready to assist in any ways that we can and of course we’re looking to fully assess the impact of that earthquake with the UN and other international partners.

“But right now, our hearts go out to the people of that region.”

A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity told Reuters it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmana, near the capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.

Myanmar is also one of the countries most severely affected by the climate crisis. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis caused devastating floods, as inland tsunamis ripped children from their parents’ arms, and destroyed villages, towns and crops. With 2.4 million in desperate need of aid, the military regime preferred to let the survivors die from disease and starvation than allow aid agencies in.

Convoys were turned back, and much aid was confiscated. We will never know the death toll, but it was estimated at 200,000, many preventable.

Will things be different this time? The regime has – unusually – requested international aid. But simultaneously there are reports that they are taking advantage of the tragedy to bomb Shan State, one of the regions liberated from the regime.

In the past, international aid agencies have routed their aid through Yangon. “The danger is that if they do this, it won’t get to where it’s needed as the government will prevent it from reaching areas it doesn’t control,” warns Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK.

With the military government only in full control of around 20 per cent of the country, even if they are willing to allow international aid in, they will likely be unable to get the aid to the remote regions where it is needed.

Speaking at the White House, US president Donald Trump said he had spoken with officials in Myanmar and that his administration would be providing some form of assistance. “We’re going to be helping,” he told reporters.

Despite the Trump administration’s push to shut the US Agency for International Development and cut nearly all remaining jobs, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said USAID disaster experts were ready to help, including with items such as food and potable water.

“USAID has maintained a team of disaster experts with the capacity to respond if disaster strikes,” she told a press briefing. “We are ready to move now. There has been no impact on our ability to perform those duties, those requests for aid, if and when they come in.”

Author and journalist Annabel Venning, whose family lived in Myanmar for years prior to its rule by a repressive military regime, writes:

There is one glimmer of hope amid tragedy: the military regime is deeply superstitious. The fact that the earthquake happened hours after Armed Forces Day was celebrated may be another blow to the dictator, General Min Aung Hlaing, whose support among even the military is crumbling. Could the earthquake help hasten his fall?

Burma is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But it is also one of the most benighted. Denied democracy, devastated by natural disaster, its suffering but stoic people surely deserve our support in what may yet be their greatest hour of need.

BBC Bangkok has reported that most major public transport systems had closed in the aftermath of the quake, prompting long queues to form outside train stations.

With the SkyTrain and subway both having closed, only buses remained – with roads reportedly badly congested, leaving many people stuck in their offices unable to reach their homes.

Prices on ride-sharing apps are reported to have surged up to four times higher than typical, with available drivers in short supply, the BBC reported.

Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking, and she and her colleagues fled down 12 flights of stairs.

“In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she said.

Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, was in one of Bangkok’s many malls when the quake struck.

“All of a sudden, the whole building began to move. Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic,” he said. Some people fled down upward-moving escalators, he said.

In a country where many people already were struggling, “this disaster will have left people devastated,” Julie Mehigan, who oversees Christian Aid’s work in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, told the Associated Press.

“Even before this heartbreaking earthquake, we know conflict and displacement has left countless people in real need,” Ms Mehigan said.