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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rebecca Ratcliffe, Esther J and reporters in Mandalay and Sagaing

Broken and in the grip of civil war, can Myanmar rebuild after earthquake?

Buddhist monks clear up rubble at the damaged monastery: they stand on and around a huge pile, with several digging. A large section of the yellow-painted monastery has collapsed and the remaining walls are leaning.
Buddhist monks clear up rubble at the Thahtay Kyaung monastery in Mandalay, four days after the major earthquake struck central Myanmar. Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

For seven painful days, Hnin has waited for news. Her two daughters, two and seven years old, her husband and their domestic worker, were all inside a six-storey hotel in Mandalay, central Myanmar, when it collapsed.

Delays to search operations have added to her agony. Hnin rushed around the devastated city, where communication lines were barely functioning, to buy head-torches and fuel for poorly equipped teams. A hotel manager refused to allow the use of a digger, fearing the building would collapse. Days passed before Chinese and Russian rescue teams arrived.

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