Medics go underground to treat protesters
Doctors in Myanmar are being forced to set up a secret network of underground clinics after being abused and threatened by armed soldiers trying to prevent them from treating injured anti-coup protesters.
“In Mandalay, we can’t use government hospitals because the soldiers are based there. So, we have to use private clinics to give treatment to patients,” a surgeon identified as Dr Zarni told the Daily Telegraph.
“Earlier this month, they came to the clinic where we were operating on gunshot patients and ordered us at gunpoint to stop giving treatment. Now we don’t tell anyone the location of our secret clinics.”
Healthcare workers have been at the forefront of the civil disobedience movement opposing the junta by providing emergency care in clinics and on the protest frontlines. Now they are being targeted, beaten and killed by the military for trying to save lives.
Thinzar Hein, a 20-year-old nurse, was buried yesterday after being killed by a bullet to the head during a Sunday rally while helping injured civilians.
She was among more than 460 people who have been killed by the security forces since the February 1 coup, according to data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). At least 312 had gunshot wounds and 90 of them were shot in the head.
At the weekend, Joe Biden, the US President, led global condemnation of an “absolutely outrageous” crackdown by Myanmar’s junta that left more than 100 people — including several children — dead in the bloodiest day since the military takeover.
But strong international statements are doing little to ease the pressure on doctors like Dr Zarni, who is ready to give up his own life to save others. “I’m a doctor and I’m in a place where people need me. If I die, it’s okay because I did my best for our country.”
Medics in government hospitals were among the first professionals to call a nationwide strike in February to demand the release of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Public hospitals have been forcibly occupied by soldiers.
Dr Kyaw Thura, who is based in Yangon, said medical staff were now afraid of treating wounded protesters in government hospitals because “the security forces will shoot us”.
Instead, patients find help from trusted doctors by word of mouth. But he said private clinics with life-saving facilities were now increasingly coming under military scrutiny, forcing medics to flee from one location to the next.
He recalled one incident operating while surrounded by gunfire. “I’m human, I have a fear of death, but I couldn’t just leave my patient alone on the operating table, so I kept going while reciting Buddhist prayers. I never thought in my life that I would be operating on a patient while in hiding. It’s like a movie.”
Others have been intercepted en route to hospital as soldiers hijack ambulances and emergency responders themselves have been mercilessly beaten.
— Telegraph Group Ltd