Day: July 27, 2021

Already grappling with a deadly third wave of COVID-19 infections in a health crisis made worse by chaos from the military coup, southern Myanmar was inundated by severe flooding over the weekend that hampered the efforts of healthcare workers and aid groups.

Heavy rains battered the southern states of Kayin and Mon and Tanintharyi region beginning on Sunday, impacting as many as 3,000 people. More than 100 in Kayin’s Hlaingbwe had to be evacuated, according to a relief official from the area. No deaths have been reported.

In Mon state’s Ye, Kyaikmaraw and Chaungzon townships, the rising Thanlwin River limited movement and frustrated efforts to treat patients infected with COVID-19, An Nu, a resident of Mawlamyine’s Shwedaung ward, told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“It is raining heavily right now. Cars and motorbikes are useless now. Houses that are level with the roads are all flooded,” he said.

“Daily wage earners living hand to mouth are in big trouble. They now must rely on donations from well-wishers.”

An Nu said that despite the high number of COVID-19 infections in the area, people are being forced to shelter alongside patients in flooded homes, putting them at risk of catching the coronavirus.

Nay Myo Aung, chairman of the Ramanya Emergency Relief Association, said no arrangements could be made for flood victims as his organization is too busy treating COVID-19 patients and cremating the dead.

“Today we are distributing meal packages to about 60 households, but the water is still rising. We can’t set up relief camps yet. People just have to stay in their flooded homes and so we are sending meal packets because they cannot do any cooking,” he said.

“We don’t know what the government’s plan is or what to do now. Should we go to the rescue of flood victims? Should we carry on with the burial of those who died with COVID-19? We also have to deal with providing treatment to COVID patients as well. We’re too busy.”

Myanmar is struggling with a devastating third wave of COVID-19 infections, the number of which rose Monday to a total of 274,155 since the country’s first recorded case in March last year. The official monthly infection rate has jumped from around two percent of those tested in April 2020 during the first wave to 23 percent earlier this month, and at least 7,507 have died in the country.

Meanwhile, the country’s hospitals are operating at maximum capacity and turning away all but the most seriously ill. Others must settle for treatment at home, but shortages have left families scrambling to secure basic medical supplies, including the oxygen they need to keep their loved ones alive.

Efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in Myanmar were dealt a serious blow when the country’s military seized power on Feb. 1, claiming that a landslide victory by the NLD in the country’s November 2020 ballot was the result of voter fraud.

The junta has provided no evidence to back up its claims and has violently responded to widespread protests, killing 934 people and arresting 5,370, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Tens of thousands of people, including many healthcare professionals, have left their jobs to join a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in opposition to junta rule.

Dr. Aung Naing Oo, a lawmaker from Chaungzon township, said the floods have worsened the situation for people suffering from COVID-19.

“It’s affected the transportation of oxygen and patients, as well as the operation of factories in the state. This flooding has totally exacerbated our problems.”

When contacted by RFA Nai Latima, a junta official in Mon state, referred calls to the central government.

Southern Myanmar often receives heavy rain at this time of year and flooding can be mitigated if proper steps are taken, but authorities have failed to make the necessary preparations, relief groups say.

Oxygen plants in Rakhine state

As the weather complicated efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in Kayin and Mon states and Tanintharyi region, civil society groups pushed forward on Monday with plans to build oxygen production plants in Rakhine state, which had been devastated by deadly ethnic violence in recent years.

Relief groups say the number of COVID-19 deaths has risen dramatically in the Rakhine capital Sittwe and townships of Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Sittwe, Minbya, Pauktaw, Buthidaung and Maungdaw in recent weeks, prompting them to turn to donors for assistance because they can no longer afford to wait for the junta to deal with the crisis.

“Oxygen has been in greater demand during this third wave and its lack of availability has led to more deaths,” said Zaw Zaw Tun, who is working to set up an oxygen plant in Sittwe.

“The authorities are inefficient. If the virus becomes more contagious, there will be more deaths. So, we are now working together to meet the needs of the people through the cooperation of the people.”

Hla Myint, chairman of the Maungdaw Oxygen Plant Construction Committee, said people of different religions had agreed to work together to overcome the epidemic.

“There are three religions in our city: Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. While their beliefs are different, the people can only overcome their problems if they work together,” he said.

“With that belief in mind, we have mobilized them, and they are deeply involved … People of all religions come to hospitals for medical treatment. So, we came up with this idea [to produce our own oxygen].”

The oxygen plant in Maungdaw is expected to be completed within 45 days and will be able to produce 80-120 40-liter cylinders per day.

The family member of a COVID-19 patient told RFA that her loved one died due to a lack of oxygen at Sittwe General Hospital on July 19.

“We heard they had enough oxygen at the hospital, so we went with full confidence that he could be saved,” the family member said. “What we actually experienced was that our patient ran out of oxygen during the night and died in the morning.”

RFA contacted Rakhine State Health Department director Dr. Kyi Lwin by telephone Monday, but he refused to comment.

Aung Naing Lin, a doctor at Maungdaw Hospital, said more than a dozen patients are currently receiving oxygen and that it would be difficult to take in more people.

“COVID-19 is a disease that requires a lot of oxygen for treatment. If there are more than 20 patients in one hospital, it won’t be easy to get them all enough oxygen,” he said.

Hla Thein, a junta official in Rakhine state, was not immediately available for comment Monday. A post to his Facebook account said that around 125 oxygen tanks had been delivered to the Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Maungdaw hospitals, as well as the Military Hospital in Ann township, and that work in underway to produce 60 cylinders a day in Thandwe township.

On July 22, Rakhine state authorities and Maj. Gen. Htin Latt Oo—the head of the junta’s Western Command—announced that they planned to take over the construction of an oxygen plant being built by civil society groups in Mrauk-U, resulting in an angry backlash by residents.

Civil society groups say there are currently 10 oxygen plants constructed with the help of donors in Rakhine state. The Rakhine State Public Health Department said that as of Monday, 110 people have died from the third wave of COVID-19 in the state, while 2,204 people have been infected. 

Chinese vaccines in Wa region

Another area of Myanmar where people are taking COVID-19 prevention into their own hands is in the rebel-controlled Wa region of northeastern Shan state, along the country’s border with China, where officials told RFA that nearly everyone has been inoculated with vaccines provided by Beijing.

Nyi Yan, the spokesman for the United Wa State Army (UWSA) said that the Chinese government provided medical assistance to people in the region because of longstanding ties between the Wa and China, as well as to prevent a possible spread of COVID-19 across the border.

“We have been working on vaccination programs throughout Wa State for a long time,” he said.

“Almost everyone has been given their shots. Vaccinations were carried out right down to the grassroots level. A lot has been done. As far as I know, the vaccines were from China.”

Wa officials said that the first dose of the two-shot vaccine had been rolled out in May and the follow-up jab in June. They did not provide the name of the vaccine or any detailed statistics.

Nearly 500,000 people live in the Wa region, meaning that the Chinese government would have had to provide residents with a million vaccinations.

An official with an unnamed ethnic armed group told RFA that the Chinese government had in the past few months provided ethnic groups active along the border with Chinese-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines with the help of the UWSA.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Myanmar’s junta has annulled the results of the country’s 2020 election, which saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party win in a landslide, drawing condemnation from political parties who condemned the move as illegal and said they will not honor it.

The military-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) announced the decision late on Monday evening, claiming that more than 11.3 million ballots had been discounted due to fraud and other irregularities during the Nov. 8 vote.

Among alleged irregularities, the commission said the deposed NLD government had assigned members of the UEC sub-commission at Myanmar’s state and regional levels, election authorities allowed voters to cast ballots without presenting their national identification cards, voters cast multiple ballots under the same name, and the NLD election victory committee members were part of a commission in charge of gathering early ballots.

The announcement was posted on the website of the junta’s Information Committee under the name of Thein Soe, the chairman of junta’s UEC.

Myanmar’s military seized power on Feb. 1 in a coup d’état, arresting Aung San Suu Kyi and other top member of the NLD leadership.

The junta has provided no evidence to back up its claims of voter fraud and has violently responded to widespread protests, killing 934 people and arresting 5,370, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Several of Myanmar’s political parties rejected Monday’s announcement, arguing that it ignores the will of both the voters and the candidates who they say won in a free and fair election. 

Candidates from 10 political parties won parliamentary seats in the 2020 election, although the NLD party took the clear majority with 396.

NLD lawmaker Phyu Phyu Thin, secretary of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee (CRPH) shadow parliament, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the election results cannot be annulled without appropriate legislation.

“Citizens across Myanmar and people around the world already knew that the election fraud accusations were just a lame excuse to make way for the military coup. Besides, given the fact that they came to power through a military coup—an unjust method—they lack the legitimacy to cancel the election results and we will not accept the announcement,” he said.

“We are already working with ethnic armed groups and civil society groups to eliminate the military dictatorship from Myanmar, once and for all. So, we don’t need to take their announcement seriously.”

‘They planned it all along’

Sai Nyunt Lwin, chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party, said his party’s candidates won 42 parliamentary seats in Shan State through a free and fair contest.

“We didn’t have any connections to the election commission members or local authorities. We didn’t have any ties to the persons in charge of the polling stations. The only people we communicated with were our voters,” he said.

“Those who didn’t like our party voted for other parties. We feel sorry that they canceled the election results after we won the third-most seats in the parliament among all political parties. We feel bad and we don’t like that they canceled the results.”

Similarly, Phae Than, a leader of Arakan National Party (ANP), which won several seats in Rakhine state, echoed concerns that the junta was using the claims of fraud to justify its takeover.

“We can see that they planned it all along. We know that their intention is to abolish the NLD party and they are now actively trying to do that. Whether their actions are fair or not, we can judge them on their intentions alone,” he said.

“Nonetheless, I do believe that canceling the election results of all constituencies for the entire country is unreasonable. If they can prove that voting fraud occurred in specific constituencies, they could have canceled the results of those constituencies. Now, other candidates who won the election fairly are paying the price. It is completely unreasonable.”

Attempts by RFA to contact Dr. Nandar Hla Myint, the spokesperson of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 71 seats in the 2020 election, went unanswered Monday.

The USDP, made up of retired army officers, refused to accept the results of the 2020 elections and its calls for a new vote set the stage for the military coup. The junta has said it will hold another ballot in a year.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Myanmar security forces have killed more than 100 teenagers in protest violence following the Feb. 1 military coup that overthrew the country’s democratically elected civilian government, sources in the country say.

Some were killed in random and unprovoked shootings, among them a 17-year-old medical student and another 17-year-old shot dead while riding his motorbike, family members told RFA in interviews, saying they still mourn their loved ones’ loss.

Khant Nyar Hein, then in his first year of medical school, was shot in the head and killed on March 14 during protests in front of a police station in Tarmwe, his father said, adding that his son had hoped someday to build hospitals and other medical facilities to provide treatment to rural people in remote parts of the country.

“He had high ambitions, and pledged with his friends that when they graduated from medical school they would establish a small hospital together somewhere in the country,” the young man’s father said. “They were planning to carry out their dreams, but now all those hopes are gone because of what happened to them.”

As of Monday, Myanmar military and police forces had killed 934 people in crackdowns on anti-coup protesters, according to figures provided by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), with UNICEF saying that 110 of these were teenagers.

Among them, 17-year-old Kyaw Min Latt, a resident of Dawei city in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region, was shot and killed by military forces for no reason on March 27 while riding his motorbike with friends, his parents said.

“There are so many stories I could share about him,” Kyaw Min Latt’s father Soe Latt said. “We’re in so much pain. We miss him every day.”

Kyaw Min Latt had quit classes in elementary school because of his family’s financial problems and had taken up masonry work and furniture making in order to support his parents, Soe Latt said, adding that his son was quick to learn new things and had hoped someday to be made a foreman at his job.

“On the day he died, he was just coming back from a trip for his work,” he said.

CCTV footage recorded at the time of Kyaw Min Latt’s death, and later broadcast by local and international media, show Kyaw Min Latt and two friends shot at close range for no apparent reason while riding on their motorbikes after encountering a military truck.

‘Now he is gone’

Of the more than 160 people killed by security forces on March 27, 18 were teenagers coming from Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Irrawaddy, Tanintharyi, and Kachin and Mon states. One, 12-year-old Htoo Myat Win from No. 2 Ward of Shwe Bo in Sagaing, was hit and killed by a stray bullet that struck him in the belly, his mother said.

“I still grieve so much for the loss my son,” his mother said. “He was just a child who liked to play. Education came second for him. He played a lot of soccer, and wanted to be a soccer player when he grew up. He also got awards for other sports like track.”

“He was always talking about what he wanted to do before he died. But now he is gone,” she said.

Htoo Myat Win’s parents had planned to hold a Shinbyu ceremony for him marking his temporary novitiate as a Buddhist monk, an important occasion in Myanmar’s Buddhist tradition for boys entering adulthood, but the paper fans made for distribution as gifts at that ceremony were later used at his funeral instead.

Nan Linn, a member of a Student Union alumni group, said that the military takeover of Myanmar’s civilian government has now left young people in the country without any rights.

“The contributions of these teenagers would have shaped the future of our country, but unfortunately the members of that generation have now lost all their opportunities and rights to education, health, and innovations in technology.”

“This is a great loss to the country, as almost an entire generation is losing their opportunity to make changes,” he said.

“Only when the [ruling] Military Council and this fascist army back off will the coming generations regain their rights. This is what we are trying to make happen.”

“Teenagers and young adults are the future of our country,” added a member of AAPP, speaking on condition of anonymity for reasons of security. “We are old now and won’t live very far into the future, so we were trying to give those in the younger generation better opportunities [to move forward].

“But now their futures have been lost under this regime, and this means the country’s future has been ruined,” he said. “The damage is immeasurable.”

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Richard Finney.