Digging for the dead, fighting for the living


Labourers working to repair a road that was damaged in the March 28 earthquake in Naypyidaw. — AP

THAE Mama Swe stood atop a pile of earthquake rubble in the monsoon rain as she watched an excavator below tear away at the concrete and rebar, while a second machine scooped the wreckage away.

It has been a daily ritual for the 47-year-old seamstress for nearly six months, ever since a 7.7-magnitude earthquake centred in Myanmar brought down a 10-storey condo and office building with her son inside. Nearly 200 bodies have been recovered from the site, including seven in the past week, but not his.

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