Myanmar’s junta has imposed a news blackout on heavy earthquake casualties among military personnel in Naypyitaw, as well as severe damage to local battalions, according to military defectors.
Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake wreaked havoc on the war office headquarters, three battalions and an interrogation barracks in the administrative capital, said former captain Zin Yaw.
“Around 100 soldiers and their families were killed in battalions across Naypyitaw. Infantry Battalion 85 and Light Infantry Battalion 302 were hit by fatalities,” he said.
The quake also killed six people and injured 27 at Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 303 and toppled several buildings at LIB 305, according to leaked reports.
Zin Yaw estimates that at least half of the war office HQ sustained damage.
“It’s difficult to get photos of the war office as only certain guard battalions have access to it. So, they have imposed a news blackout,” he said.
However, video clips shared on social media show walls partially collapsed at the war office HQ.
Junta media also shared photos of regime No.2 Soe Win holding a quake response meeting in a makeshift tarpaulin meeting room outside the damaged Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Ministry in Naypyitaw.
A Red Cross staffer in the capital said only the army and junta departments are conducting rescue and relief operations at Naypyitaw’s military and government buildings, with outside teams barred.
The death toll across Naypyitaw Union Territory is reportedly highest in Zabuthiri Township, where government employees were concentrated. Pyinmana Township suffered the second highest casualty and damage rate, said the staffer.
“People died when several four-story staff-quarters collapsed in Zabuthiri Township. Old buildings collapsed in Pyinmana. The chance of finding survivors is low now that several days have passed since the quake, so we are prioritizing relief efforts.”
Junta media published a photo of regime Foreign Minister Than Swe sitting outside his damaged ministry during a Special Emergency Meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on Sunday.
Twenty minutes north, the Supreme Court has suspended hearings until further notice due to earthquake damage.
The damage extended to the foreign, labor, transport and communications ministries, with several staff-quarters partially collapsed, junta media reports suggested. Deaths were reported among government employees, but The Irrawaddy was unable to verify that information.
Naypyitaw roads and bridges, power stations, power lines, transformers and related infrastructure suffered damage in the quake, according to regime sources.
The tremors also toppled a public hospital in Ottarathiri Township, just north of the capital, killing people and forcing the evacuation of inpatients into the hospital compound.
Myanmar’s most devastating earthquake in living memory also left a trail of destruction in Magwe and Bago, and northeastern Shan State.
By Monday, the death toll had risen to 2,065, with over 3,900 injured and 270 missing, according to the regime.
