Blog Elements – Page 322

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Myanmar’s Health System Is in Collapse, ‘Obliterated’ by the Regime

May 2, 2022/in News

The surgeon was in the middle of operating on a patient when the squad of soldiers entered the hospital looking for doctors to arrest. A receptionist alerted the surgeon, Dr. Kyaw Swar, but it was too late for him to stop the procedure. Hoping to avoid attention, he ran out into the hallway and collected […]

Two female 88 Generation activists missing following their arrest

May 2, 2022/in News

The son of one of the two women was also detained in the Kayin State capital Hpa-an last week Two women belonging to a political organization formed by veterans of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were arrested in the Kayin (Karen) State capital Hpa-an last week and have not been heard from since, according to their […]

Myanmar’s Health System Is in Collapse, ‘Obliterated’ by the Regime

May 2, 2022/in News

Two female 88 Generation activists missing following their arrest

May 2, 2022/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Myanmar’s Health System Is in Collapse, ‘Obliterated’ by the Regime

May 2, 2022/in News

Hoping to avoid attention, he ran out into the hallway and collected the shoes that he and his colleagues had left outside the operating room door — a telltale sign that surgery was underway. Moments later, the soldiers walked noisily past the operating theater.

“If they had found us, they would have arrested us,” Dr. Kyaw Swar said. “But I will not run away while I am operating on a patient. It is not a crime for a doctor to treat patients.”

Dr. Kyaw Swar’s close call last month came as Myanmar’s security forces intensify their crackdown on doctors who oppose the military junta that seized power 14 months ago. Doctors have been at the forefront of a nationwide civil disobedience movement that has crippled the economy, and the regime has targeted health care workers from the start.

In recent weeks, the security forces have arrested doctors at their homes and hospitals, revoked the licenses of prominent physicians, searched hospitals for wounded resistance fighters and threatened to close health care facilities that employ doctors opposing the regime.

For Myanmar soldiers, who are notorious for stealing from citizens, going after doctors is also a convenient way to make money, since doctors are among the country’s wealthier people. During arrests, soldiers have seized cash, gold, jewelry and vehicles worth tens of thousands of dollars. In some cases, army officers have demanded as much as $5,000 not to shut down a private hospital, hospital officials said.

Since the coup on Feb. 1, 2021, soldiers and the police have arrested 140 doctors for participating in the nationwide protest movement, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is monitoring arrests. Of these, 89 remain behind bars.

At least 30 doctors have been killed, according to the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights, which called Myanmar one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a health worker.

The harassment and arrest of doctors who oppose the regime comes as the country faces a continuing health emergency because of a severe shortage of doctors, a chronic lack of resources and the closing of many hospitals and clinics.Image

Medical students, doctors and engineers in February 2021 protesting against the military coup that month in Myanmar. — Credit…The New York Times

In a statement earlier this month marking World Health Day, a rights group, Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma, said the Myanmar military has “destabilized the country beyond repair.”

“The health care sector is one of many which has been obliterated,” the group said.

Nearly one million children are not receiving routine immunizations, leaving them vulnerable to measles and other diseases, and nearly 5 million children are missing out on vitamin A supplements, putting them at risk of infections and blindness, according to UNICEF.

Throughout the country, barely 40 percent of the population is fully vaccinated for Covid-19, and many patients are left without routine care. Needed operations are difficult to schedule.

Doctors say that health care has improved somewhat in recent months in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, with many physicians returning to work. But anti-regime doctors estimate that hundreds of people are still dying each week because of the collapse of the health care system.

One regime tactic has been to release doctors from prison on the condition that they disavow the civil disobedience movement and agree to work at a military-controlled, government hospital, doctors said.

“In conflict-torn areas, it’s worse than in cities because the government hospitals are not running at all and people are mostly in refugee camps in the jungle,” said Dr. Wai Myo, who was fired from Mandalay General Hospital last year for joining the protest movement. “So, if something happens to them, the chance of death is very high.”

A spokeswoman for the junta’s health ministry declined to comment.

After the coup, thousands of doctors refused to work for the regime and left jobs in government facilities. Many began offering their services free at private hospitals and underground clinics.

In its attempt to force doctors to work in facilities it controls, the military has shut down at least a dozen clinics offering free medical treatment and demanded that private hospitals and clinics hand over the names of patients and their medical history.

As it hunts down anti-regime doctors and wounded combatants, the regime has branded people seeking care from underground clinics as “illegal patients.”

“What is the reason to arrest us?” asked Dr. Wai Myo. “Just for giving treatment? It’s total nonsense. I want to be a good citizen, so I joined the civil disobedience movement. I want to be a good doctor, so I’m giving free medical treatment to patients.”

Mandalay General Hospital, a major teaching hospital in Myanmar’s second-largest city, has been at the center of the protest movement since the start. Doctors in Mandalay have been much slower than those in other regions to return to work at government-controlled centers.

Last month, the city’s health director and the army general who is Mandalay’s chief commander summoned private hospital owners to a meeting and informed them that the licenses of 14 medical professors and leading specialists at Mandalay General Hospital would be revoked, according to hospital owners who attended the meeting.

Medical staff watched from a hospital rooftop as security forces cracked down on protestors in Mandalay in February 2021, the month of the coup in Myanmar. — Credit…The New York Times

They warned that any private hospital that hired them — or other doctors known to support the civil disobedience movement — would be shut down.

The loss of highly trained doctors can have life-or-death consequences for some patients.

Lieu Shin, a rice farmer from Kalay, 160 miles northwest of Mandalay, is in desperate need of a kidney transplant, and his brother has agreed to donate one. But Mandalay General Hospital, the only place in the region where such surgery could be done, no longer has a team of doctors capable of performing the operation.

Mr. Lieu Shin, 64, was given only days to live, but continues to hang on with dialysis, which is exhausting his family’s savings. He blames the regime for his inability to get treatment, not the doctors.

“The doctors said I need an emergency operation,” he said. “But there are not enough doctors at the hospital. All I can do now is wait for my turn to die.”

The New York Times

Two female 88 Generation activists missing following their arrest

May 2, 2022/in News

The son of one of the two women was also detained in the Kayin State capital Hpa-an last week

Two women belonging to a political organization formed by veterans of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were arrested in the Kayin (Karen) State capital Hpa-an last week and have not been heard from since, according to their colleagues.

Nu Nu Aung and Khet Khet, who are both members of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, were arrested on April 26 along with Khet Khet’s adult son, an official from the group told Myanmar Now.

Nu Nu Aung was in Hpa-An to receive medical treatment when all three were taken into custody, the official added.

Nu Nu Aung belongs to the group’s Farmers’ Welfare Department, while Khet Khet is a member of its Department of Women’s and Children’s Affairs.

Myanmar Now has been unable to obtain any information regarding the arrests from regime officials.

Founded by prominent former student leaders, the 88 Generation group has played a leading role in resisting the military’s return to power following last year’s coup.

One of its founding members, Min Ko Naing, is a member of the National Unity Consultative Council, a coalition of ethnic and pro-democracy forces formed to oppose the dictatorship and establish a federal union.

Currently in hiding, he has been wanted by the junta since February of last year, when the military ousted the country’s elected civilian government.

Mya Aye, another founding member, was sentenced to two years in prison in March, more than a year after being arrested at his home on the morning of the coup.

In January, fellow 88 Generation leader Ko Jimmy, whose real name is Kyaw Min Yu, was sentenced to death after being found guilty by a junta-controlled court of plotting acts of terrorism.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 10,000 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced over the past 14 months for opposing the takeover.

Myanmar Now News

Spring Revolution

Civil Society Position Paper on ASEAN’s Goal of a Myanmar-Owned and -Led SolutionDecember 18, 2024 - 12:11 pm
Recommendations to ASEAN and Its Member States (1) Move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “Myanmar-owned and -led” approach must be backed by genuine political will that aligns with and supports the collective aspirations of the people of Myanmar. (2) Cease all pressure on […]
The Airstrikes after the journey to the China of the Junta Military LeaderDecember 10, 2024 - 1:28 pm
Operation 1027 was a coordinated military attack against the junta on October 27th, 2023. It was carried out by the Northern Brotherhood, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Several months later, the Three Brotherhood Alliance held three meetings to negotiate with China on January 11 […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 15 to 21, 2024)September 27, 2024 - 8:26 am
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 15 to 21, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Shan State, Chin State, Rakhine State, and Kachin State from September 15th to 21st. The Military Junta committed arresting, occupying the properties, threatening by using power, and […]

Multimedia

GenocideSeptember 2, 2025 - 9:42 am
Crimes Against HumanityJune 16, 2025 - 7:55 am
International Humanitarian Law Cartoon AnimatonApril 29, 2025 - 8:37 am
အတိတ်မှ ဆိုးရွားသည့် အကြီးအကျယ် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ ထပ်မံမဖြစ်ပွားစေရေးအ တွက် အာမခံခြင်း (Guarantees of non-recurrence)February 10, 2025 - 9:58 am

ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

ND Burma

Recent Posts