Quake-hit Myanmar city becomes epicenter of junta election offensive

MANDALAY, Myanmar: Six Myanmar war widows speak softly of their grief as they walk inside the crumbling walls of Mandalay Palace, fresh arrivals in an earthquake-wracked city strained anew by conflict.

“We feel more freedom here,” said one among them, all widows of dead soldiers.

She was evacuated from her hometown, which was “ruined by war,” to the improbable refuge of a military-run quake recovery zone several months after it struck.

The March 28 jolt killed nearly 3,800 people as it flattened swaths of Mandalay – an ancient royal capital hemmed by jungle-clad mountains and the snaking Irrawaddy River.

The 7.7-magnitude tremor dealt an especially heavy blow in a country reeling from civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.

The junta has pledged elections beginning on December 28 and has touted them as a path to peace with its myriad adversaries – from ragtag pro-democracy partisans to semi-professional ethnic minority armies.

However, a UN expert has dismissed the vote as a “fraud” and rebels have declared they will block it.

The military is besieging their enclaves with new offensives, bidding to expand the poll’s reach into regions it does not currently control.

Fighter jets and helicopters howl over Mandalay’s quake-dented skyline, flying toward front lines while newly displaced civilians arrive daily, crowding shelters in a city where much was razed.

Draped over the tarpaulin-wrapped palace parapet, a new red military banner urges: “Co-operate and crush all those harming the union.”

The widows, who AFP is not identifying for security reasons, have been left in mourning and displaced in a strange and wounded place.

“Some of our husbands fell in battle right before our eyes. Some fell far away,” said one, now raising three children alone.

“I have no idea about politics,” she said. “I do not think it is good that Myanmar people fight each other.”