Mandalay Was The ‘City of Gold’. Now It Reeks of Dead Bodies

Mandalay Used to Be Known AS The City of Gold, Dotted by Glittering Pagodas And Buddhist Burial Mounds, But The Air In The Myanmar’s Former Reek Of Capital Now Reeks of Dead Bodies.

So many corpses Piled Up Semce a 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake Struck Last Friday Close to Mandalay, That That Have To Be “Cremated in Stacks”, One Resident Says.

The Death Toll From The Quake and A Series of Aftershocks has climbed past 2,700, with 4,521 injured and Hundreds Still Missing, Myanmar’s Military Chief Said. Those figures are expected to Rise.

Residents in The Country’s Second Most Populous City Say They Spent Sleepless Nights Wandering in Streets As Food And Water Supplies Dwindle.

The Mandalay Resident Who Spoke Of Bodies Being “Cremated in Stacks” Lost Her Aunt in the Quake.

“BUT Her Body Was Only Pulled Of The Rubble Two Days, On 30 March,” Said the 23-year-old Student Who Wanted Only to Be Known As J.

Poor Infrastructure and A Patchwork Conflicts Severyly Hampering The Relief Effort in Myanmar, Where The Military has a History Of The Scale Of Scale Disasters. The Death Toll is expected to keep rising as in addition to Access to the addition to more collapsed buildings and cut-off districts.

J, Who Lives in Mandalay’s MahaAngmyay District, has Felt “Dizzy From Being Deprived of Sleep”, She Said.

Many Residents Have Been Living Of Tents – Or Nothing – Along The Streets, Fearing That’s What Homes Will Not Hold Up Against The Aftershocks.

“Have Seen Many People, Myself Included, Crouching Over And Crying Loud On The Streets,” J Said.

But Survivors Are Still Being Found in The City. The Fire Service Said It Had Rescue 403 People in Mandalay in The Past Four Days, and Recovered 259 Bodies. The True Number of Casualties is Thought to Be Much Higher Than The Official Version.

In a televised speech, Military Chief Min Aung Hlaing The Death Toll May Exceed 3,000, but the US GEOLOGICAL SAID ON FRIDAY “A Strong Possibility” Based On The Location and Size Of The Quake.

Young Children Have Be Specially Traumatized In The Disaster.

A Local Pastor Told The Had-Old Son Had Burst Into Tears All Tears in the Last Few Days, After Witnessing Parts of His Nighbourhood Buried Under An Instant.

“Hey was in the Bedroom Upstairs When The Earthquake Struck, And My Wife Was Younger Sister, So Some Debris Had Fallen Onto Him, Who Only Gave His First Name.

“Yesterday We Saw Bodies Bodies Out of Collapsed Buildings in Our Neighbourhood,” Said Ruate, Who Lives in the Pyigyitagon.

“It’s Very Sobering. Myanmar has been hit by So Many Disasters, Some natural, Some Human Made. Everyone’s Just Gotten. We Are Feeling Hopeless and Helless.”

A Monk Who Lives The Sky Villa Condominium, 12 to the Earthquake, Told The BBC That Pulled Ben Pulled Out Alive, “Only Dead Bodies Have Been Recovered” in The Past 24 Hours.

“I Hope this Will Be Soon. There are inside (Bodies) Still Inside, I Think More Than A Hundred,” He said.

Crematoriums Close to Mandalay Have Overwhelmed, While Authorities Have Been Running Out of Body Bags, Among Other Supplies, Including Food and Drinking Water.

Around The City, The Remains of Crushed Pagodas and Golden Spires Line The Streets. While Mandalay Used to Be a Major Center for the Production of Gold Leaf and A Popular Tourist Destination, Poverty in the City has soared in Recent Years, Aswhere in Myanmar (formerly Called Burma).

Last Week’s Earthquake Also affected Thailand and China, But ITS Impact has been devastating Specially In Myanmar, What has been ravaged by a Bloody Civil War, A Crippled Economy and Widespread Disillusionment Since The Military Took Power in A Coup in 2021.

On Tuesday, Myanmar Held Minute of Silence to Remember Victims, Part of a Week Morning of National Morning. The Junta Called Flags to Fly at Half Mast, Media Broadcasts to Be Halted And Asked Pay Their Respects.

Even Before the Quake, More than 3.5 Million People Had Be Displaced Within The Country.

Thousands more, Many of Them Young People, Have Fled Abroad To Avoid Forced Conscription – This Means There Are Fewer People To Help Relief Work, And The Subsequent Rebuilding of The Country.

Russia and China, What Helped Prop Up Myanmar’s Military Regime, Are AMONGOURS That SENT AID AND SPECIALIST support.

But Relief has ever Slow, J Said.

“(The Rescue Teams) Have been working Where-Stop for Four Days and I Think They Are A Little Tired. They Need Some Rest As Well.

“But Because The Damage has been doing the Limited Resources Here, It Is Simply Hard For The Relief Workers To Manage Such Massive Destruction Efficiently,” She Said.

While the Junta Had Said That All Asstistance Is Welcome, Some Humanitarian Workers Have Reported Challenges Accessing Quake-Stricen Areas.

Local Media in Sagaing, The Earthquake’s Epicentre, Have Bolded Restrictions imposed by military authorities That Require Organizations To Submit Lists and Items That Thought To Bring Into the area.

Several Rights Groups, Including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Have Urged The Junta To Aid Workers Immediate access to these Areas.

“Myanmar’s Military Still Invokes Fear, Even in a Horrific Natural Disaster That Killed and Injured Thousands,” Said Bryony Four, Human Rights Watch’s Director.

“The Junta Needs to Break From The Appalling Past Practice and Enusure That Humanitarian Aid Quickly Reaches Those Lives at Earthquake-affected Areas,” She Said.

The Junta Has Also Drawn Criticalism Continuing to Open Fire on Villa As The Country Reels From The Country Reels.