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<\/a>\n\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nJunta mismanagement<\/strong><\/p>\nDr. Zaw Wai Soe, the health minister for Myanmar\u2019s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), told RFA\u2019s Myanmar Service that the country\u2019s leaders had plenty of time to prepare for the third wave of the virus after watching it spread in neighboring India and Thailand, and after dealing with two earlier outbreaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cManagement is crucial, but right now there is no proper management,\u201d he said, referring to the political chaos that has engulfed Myanmar in the aftermath of the junta\u2019s Feb. 1 coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe health sector did not take any precautionary measures for this [current wave] and the country is in this situation because there is a weakness in management.\u201d<\/p>\n
A doctor who treated COVID-19 patients during the first and second waves said the situation is likely to get worse, as Myanmar's entire health system had collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a [administrative] system, there must be good leaders and good followers, but now, that system is broken,\u201d she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur entire health system is in a very sorry state.\u00a0There\u2019s no good leader to make decisions \u2026\u00a0[and] there are very few health workers who will continue to work in the health sector.\u00a0If it goes on like this, if left unmanaged, a very worrisome situation will arise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Myanmar\u2019s military says it was right to seize power because a landslide victory by Augn San Suu Kyi\u2019s National League for Democracy (NLD) in the country\u2019s November 2020 ballot was the result of voter fraud. The junta has provided no evidence to back up its claims and violently responded to widespread protests, killing 929 people and arresting 5,323, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A doctor in Mandalay told RFA it will not be easy to control the latest outbreak under the leadership of the junta.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven developed countries like the United States and the European states have had a very hard time trying to control the pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in a situation like ours, where the military has seized power without any support from the people, it will be extremely difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called on the international community to intervene.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn explosion of COVID cases, including the delta variant, the collapse of Myanmar\u2019s healthcare system, and the deep mistrust of the people of Myanmar of anything connected to the military junta, are a perfect storm of factors that could cause a significant loss of life in Myanmar without emergency assistance by the international community,\u201d said Andrews.<\/p>\n
As Myanmar\u2019s COVID-19 cases continued to rise, sources told RFA that the junta is restricting United Nations aid workers from accessing thousands of refugees in Chin state, despite an urgent need for shelter and medication in the region, where residents have fled a military offensive against members of a local militia in recent months.<\/p>\n On Monday, a group of staffers from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees\u00a0(UNHCR) left Myanmar\u2019s largest city Yangon with a truck full of medicine and relief goods for some 1,000 refugee families numbering around 5,000 people in for Chin state\u2019s Mindat township.<\/p>\n The UNHCR convoy arrived in Mindat that evening and on Tuesday began a planned three-day distribution of COVID-19 personal protection equipment (PPEs), mosquito nets,\u00a0mats, blankets,\u00a0kitchen utensils, solar lanterns and tarps for the rainy season.<\/p>\n However, a monk from Mindat told RFA that junta troops only allowed the group to assist about 50 families sheltering in a military controlled monastery and church in the township, citing \u201csecurity concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.N. people were only allowed to hand out supplies at a church officially recognized as a refugee camp by the military\u2014I heard that these were the only donations given away,\u201d he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they hope to go to nearby villages, they will only be permitted to access refugee camps recognized by the junta.\u00a0[The troops] said they were not allowed to go [elsewhere] because the area was too dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n A refugee worker in Mindat said the UNHCR will return its remaining supplies to Yangon if it is not permitted to travel freely in the region.<\/p>\n \u201c[People] who have returned from the jungles and are now back at their homes in town were not allowed to receive any donations\u00a0and the UNHCR staff were not allowed to travel to the villages [to assist refugees],\u201d the worker said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince they could not negotiate with the military,\u00a0the UNHCR will take the remaining items back to Yangon after\u00a0helping the 50 families it was allowed to meet with.\u201d<\/p>\n A member of the Christian clergy, who declined to be named, said UNHCR officials had called on the local army commander and the General Administration Office to lift the ban on travel and were still in negotiations on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard that they were asking for permission to distribute the rest [of their supplies] to people in the nearby forests and those in various wards of the town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don't know yet if they will get permission.\u00a0I think the army did not allow them to go because it could not take responsibility for their security.\u201d<\/p>\n An RFA request to the UNHCR office in Yangon for comment on the situation went unanswered on Wednesday.<\/p>\n More than 50,000 people\u2014including 15,000 from Mindat alone\u2014have fled their homes in Chin state since late April, when the military launched an offensive against the local People\u2019s Defense Force (PDF) militia, formed to protect the public from the junta\u2019s troops in the aftermath of its coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n According to the United Nations and aid groups, conflict in Myanmar\u2019s remote border regions has displaced an estimated 230,000 residents since the junta coup. They join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of conflict between the military and ethnic armies who were already counted as internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO.<\/p>\n Reported by RFA\u2019s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n \n\n
\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
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