«I feel like saying that it rains in the wet. The earthquake arrived on a fragile country and exhausted by years of civil war and struggles between armed groups that continue to advance even now, in the west of the country. I hope this tragedy can break the isolation and Myanmar opens up to diplomatic relationships with other countries that promised aid and moved to help us».
It is the testimony rendered to Christian family by a person of the Catholic community, who wants to remain anonymous for security reasons, who comes from Yangon, The largest city in the country with its 5 million inhabitants and also the economic capital of the country of Southeast Asia. “We live 500 meters from the epicenter, Mandalay. We felt very well the shocks but here in Yangon there were no collapses, fortunately, and not even dead and injured», Explains our source,” many hospitals and health facilities have collapsed and are now reduced to a pile of rubble. The country has no strength and ability to face such an impressive tragedy. In recent years, a lot of money has been spent in another way and to feed the guerrilla guerrilla. Among the military who are in power there is someone who tries to intervene on a social level but the general situation was dramatic and now it is even more so ».
The earthquake, so far, has caused over one thousand five hundred victims ascertained and more than three thousand wounded while fearing a catastrophe also from the health point of view. «Even before the earthquake, the electricity arrived in fits and starts throughout the country, every four hours, now there has been no whole day and even the internet works even», Says our source,” I hope that, in the tragedy, the junta opens outside, to those who, starting with the neighboring countries, have shown solidarity. Here there is no religious persecution against Christians as Christians but all minorities, including Christians, are in the sights of the military junta because they forcefully oppose the regime “.
There BBC reported that, regardless of the devastating earthquake that hit the country, The military junta continued to carry out air attacks in different regions of the country where the rebels that oppose the regime are active.
According to the Peoplès Defense Force, the militia that fights against the junta, the village of Nwe Khway, in the district of Chaung u a sagaing, Epicenter region of the earthquake, it was bombed twice. Other air raids were conducted to Ley Wahin the state of Kayin, near the headquarters of the Karen National Union (which is fighting for independence) and Pyu, in the Bago region. The United Nations body investigating the violations of human rights in the country has launched the alarm: the military are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against their people. The military, as the BBC has always reported, are trying to repress an armed revolt in favor of democracy throughout the country, which struggles to remove them from power. A survey on the data conducted by the English broadcaster at the end of last year discovered that the army now controls only less than a quarter of the country.
However, with its air force, the army manages to prevail: using Russian and Chinese combat jets, it has conducted and leads devastating air attacks throughout the country.
In Burma 89 percent of the population is Buddhist. Christians do not reach 8 percent, of which 1 percent are Catholics. Muslims are 3.76 percent.
Another testimony comes from Yaung ni ooBirman humanitarian operator of Basic in Yangon but originally from Mandalay, who ad Asia News He told what the situation is: “In Sagaing they say that 80% of the city has been destroyed, the devastations are everywhere, the bridges have collapsed or unusable and boats must be used to wade the rivers By creating further critical issues in the rescue operations, “he said,” in the city there are no help and many decide to sleep on the ground or under the trees, also because throughout the night the shocks of settlement continued, some of which are strong and people are frightened “.One of the few positive aspects, he added, is “solidarity between Christians, Buddhists and Muslims”.
In the region of the earthquake epicenter, a Chantagon, Anisakan and Pyin Oo Lwinthe Salesian nuns are also present Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. They are all fine but their buildings are destroyed. High damage were recorded in particular to the Blessed Community Laura Vicuña of Chantone, from which the Salesians write: “The walls of the complex have collapsed and the two -storey building also where the professional training center of IT and accounting has been struck. The ceilings collapsed and at that moment about 5 girls were at home while Sister Mary, an elderly sister, accompanied by Sister Rosalyne, was at the clinic for some medical treatment.
The director, Sister Elizabeth, and two other young sisters were in a seminar in another community. They came back immediately after learning the news. The nuns still tell that “the rooms are destroyed and you cannot sleep in that building. All power lines have been interrupted, so there is no electricity, you have to save you to use the phone and the load of internet data is very slow». For the next night the nuns and the girls slept in the maternal school building “which has only the ground floor and has quite solid walls. The houses of the village of Chantagon have also been destroyed ». In the message the Salesian reports that the community of Santa Maria D. Mazzarello of Anisakan has also been hit and the walls of the house are full of cracks.
