Naypyitaw in Ruins: A Tale of Military Hubris and Crony Profits

The junta’s nerve center of Naypyitaw was one of the few places expected to withstand the powerful earthquake that struck central Myanmar on March 28. But shock mounted as images of devastation emerged from the gleaming fortified city built only two decades ago.

The magnitude-7.7 quake tore through staff housing, government office buildings, roads, hospitals, and military facilities in the administrative capital, exposing the corruption and cronyism behind its construction.

About half of the 4,000 staff housing units were destroyed, with the rest left uninhabitable. Among the hundreds killed were large numbers of regime staff and their family members, while injury victims swamped the 1,000-bed Naypyitaw public hospital.