MANDALAY – 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 five months, ever since a 7.7-magnitude earthquake centered in Myanmar brought down a 10-story 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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“If it were possible, I would exchange my life for his,” she said, her glasses wet with rain and her eyes swollen with tears.

The March 28 disaster that killed more than 3,800 people unfolded as Myanmar was already mired in a civil war , in which armed mili

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