Social welfare organisations overwhelmed by escalating Covid-19 death toll

Covid-19

Three local groups in Yangon say they are witnessing hundreds of cremations per day of people who have died from a lack of treatment for the virus

Myanmar Now

Published on Jul 14, 2021

Bodies awaiting cremation at Yay Way cemetery on July 13 (Photo: Myanmar Now)

For more than one week, three Yangon-based social welfare groups say they have assisted in organising around 600 cremations and funeral services every day, as Covid-19 infections surge amid a dysfunctional post-coup health infrastructure.

The department of health under the junta is widely believed to have underreported the country’s Covid-related deaths, claiming that there have been a total of more than 700 nationwide in the first 13 days of July.

“Many have died due to hypoxia. It’s worse in the elderly and those with underlying conditions. But it all boils down to the pandemic, after all. It’s not easy to even get a coffin or a stretcher. Everything’s extremely scarce now,” a spokesperson from Yangon’s Bo Sein Social Services said.

Local representatives for the three organisations Myanmar Now spoke with said that their groups normally have the collective capacity to hold funeral services for 100 deceased persons per day.

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“Normally, our group would only have to deal with 20 to 25 bodies a day, but now it’s become more than 45 to 50 these days, and sometimes we have even had to close our office,” the spokesperson of a social welfare group in North Okkalapa said, adding that there are new social service teams emerging to help cope with the crisis.

He chose not to identify the name of his organisation, due to security concerns.

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Bodies awaiting cremation at Yay Way cemetery on July 14 (Photo: Myanmar Now)

The outreach groups are sending the bodies to four cemeteries, including Yay Way in North Okkalapa Township, Htein Pin in Hlaing Tharyar, Kyi Su in South Dagon and Kyu Chaung in Shwepyitha.

A local man who was at the Yay Way cemetery for two hours on Wednesday said that he witnessed the cemetery overcrowded with carts carrying coffins, waiting for their turn to bury or cremate the dead. He noted that all three incinerators in the crematorium were operating non-stop to cope with the unprecedented number of bodies.

He told Myanmar Now that he saw around 50 bodies awaiting cremation, and that the parking lot was crowded with the cars of people attending funeral services and those from social service organisations assisting with the burials.

Another member of a Yangon-based social welfare group said that the logistics of arranging so many burials and funeral services had become difficult, with the cemetery becoming a chaotic place.

“Cremation takes time and for that reason alone, it’s really hard to get to the families on time [to collect the bodies of their loved ones],” he explained.

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Yay Way cemetery on July 14 (Photo: Myanmar Now)

Myanmar Now contacted the municipal authorities regarding the increase in Covid-19 deaths, but they would not provide public comment on the situation.

Myanmar Now previously reported that Covid-19 patients were dying at an unprecedented rate due to the unavailability of medical oxygen. Sources at oxygen factories in Yangon said that the junta had ordered that the gas be exclusively supplied to Covid-19 centres run by the military council, and have prohibited both private and state-owned producers from distributing to individuals.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun confirmed on Monday that the military had, in fact, restricted private oxygen plants from selling oxygen to the general public amidst the third wave of the pandemic.

“We admit it. All the hospitals and clinics are full. All the quarantine centers are full and we can’t receive patients anymore,” Zaw Min Tun said in a press conference in Naypyitaw.

Demands for oxygen have been at an all-time high, as the virus affects patients’ ability to breathe. Representatives of social service teams said that people in Yangon have been paying as much as 350,000 to 400,000 kyat (US$210-240) for a 40-liter tank of oxygen.

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Civilians wait to fill their oxygen tanks in South Dagon on July 14 (Photo: Myanmar Now)

COVID-19

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Pyu Saw Htee members surrender to resistance fighters in Yaw and hand over weapons

The Yaw Defence Force says it is monitoring the detainees and does not trust them

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

Muskets confiscated from Pyu Saw Htee members who surrendered to the YDF (YDF)

About 30 members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee group surrendered to resistance fighters in upper Myanmar’s Yaw region on Thursday and handed over muskets given to them by the military.

The group surrendered in Htilin Township, Magway Region, after coming under attack from the Yaw Defence Force (YDF) and receiving no protection from the military, said an officer from the Htilin branch of the YDF.

“We’re still monitoring them as we can’t trust them yet,” he told Myanmar Now. “They came from nearby villages.”

The Pyu Saw Htee collective was formed with supporters of the military in the wake of the February 1 coup with the aim of undermining anti-dictatorship forces with threats and violence.

Pyu Saw Htee members have issued death threats against civilians in Sagaing Region’s Mingin and in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan.

Those who surrendered in the Yaw region have signed a pledge promising to stand with the people, the YDF officer said.

On Sunday Htilin YDF fighters intercepted Pyu Saw Htee members carrying weapons on motorcycles near the village of Zee Taw, killing one Pyu Saw Htee member and confiscating 20 muskets.

The military offered no help to Pyu Saw Htee in the wake of the attack and so the Pyu Saw Htee members decided to surrender, the YDF officer said.

“The military council did not show at all and the Pyu Saw Htee members realised that the military could not provide protection for them. So they came to us,” he said.

The muskets that the Pyu Saw Htee members surrendered with were originally confiscated from resistance fighters by the military, he added.

“They were given those weapons by the military to fight back against the PDF,” he said, referring to the People’s Defence Force.

The Pyu Saw Htee members who surrendered to the YDF have threatened local resistance fighters and passed information about them to the military, he said.

“They even requested weapons from the police. They’re still in the preparation phase. No regular civilian would have access to weapons from the military council. But they claimed that they became members of the Pyu Saw Htee unknowingly,” said the YDF officer.

Locals are also suspicious of the intentions of those who surrendered.

“They formed the group because they did not like the defence forces in the first place. It appears that they were only surrendering because they were afraid for their lives as the military council units closest to Htilin cannot provide them protection,” said a Htilin resident.

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The remains of a house burned by soldiers in Htanpinkone village on September 28 (Supplied)

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun claimed during a press conference on September 15 that Pyu Saw Htee was not formed by the military and did not receive any training or weapons from it.

Late last month junta soldiers set fire to five houses in the village of Htanpinkone, in Htilin, because they suspected resistance fighters were staying there, according to the YDF.

Local resistance groups clashed with soldiers in Htilin in May and June.

The junta has deployed thousands of troops to Chin State and Sagaing and Magway regions in recent weeks in what appears to be preparation for major offensives against resistance groups, which have inflicted severe casualties against junta forces since the coup.

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Coalition of Chin resistance fighters attacks soldiers who torched villages

It is unclear if any junta soldiers were killed in the clash

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

The village of Rialti seen burning on Thursday morning (Supplied)

A coalition of resistance fighters from the Chin National Army (CNA) and the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) launched an attack on Thursday against a military unit that had been burning down homes in the north of the state.

It is unclear if anyone was killed or injured in the fighting but the resistance fighters say they suffered no casualties.

Junta soldiers stationed along the road connecting the towns of Falam and Hakha burned down every one of the roughly 10 houses in the village of Rialti, as well as a church, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, CNDF spokesperson Salai William told Myanmar Now.

“They torched seven houses in Rialti last night… and then torched the remaining houses this morning,” he said on Thursday. “Even the church was not spared. They also torched six houses in a village called Talanrawn, which was a mile away from Rialti.”

Both villages are about 10 miles from Falam and have just a few dozen residents.

Salai Htet Ni, a spokesperson for the CNF, told Myanmar Now the junta soldiers also fired shells.

“The military units heading towards Hakha from Falam were stationed there and they started torching houses and firing shells. Our troops went there in cars today and intercepted them,” he said on Thursday.

“The clash lasted around 30 minutes. They also started firing shells from Falam township. There were no casualties on our side but I haven’t heard anything about their side.”

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Two armoured trucks seen passing through Falam on October 12 (Supplied)

Salai Willian said soldiers from the junta’s 268th Infantry Battalion in Falam fired three rounds of 122mm shells towards the area of the clash at around 11am on Thursday.

The military has been sending reinforcements to Chin since the beginning of October, with resistance forces launching frequent ambushes in response.

On Wednesday the coalition of Chin groups said it killed five junta soldiers when it attacked a separate military column travelling from Hakha in the direction of Falam.

On the same day, a convoy of two armoured vehicles and over 80 military trucks arrived in Mindat from Pakokku in Magway Region, while over 40 trucks and hundreds of soldiers were seen heading from Kalay in Sagaing Region towards Falam on Tuesday.

On Monday soldiers raided the village of Tiphir, on the road between Kalay and Falam, forcing residents to flee into surrounding forests. Two days later two villagers were found dead with bullet wounds, a villager there said. Locals are convinced junta soldiers killed them.

The victims were Thawng Lun Mang, a 29-year-old father of two, and Salai Salai Thawng Nei Mawi, aged 34. Their funerals were held on Wednesday.

The junta has sent thousands of troops to Chin, Sagaing and Magway in preparation for what many fear will be massive offensives against resistance fighters. Every township in Chin except Hakha has been under a junta-imposed internet blackout since September 23.

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Junta reportedly eyeing November reopening of schools

Striking teachers dismiss a plan to reopen schools as an attempt to normalise military rule, and vow to continue their resistance to the junta

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

People in Mandalay protest against a ‘dark age of education’ under the military on March 22 (EPA)

The military council is reportedly planning to reopen primary, middle and high schools as early as November despite continued threats of Covid-19 and ongoing teacher strikes and student boycotts in accordance with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) aimed at toppling the junta.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most schools were already closed at the time of Myanmar’s February 1 military coup. The junta attempted to reopen them nationwide on June 1, the start of Myanmar’s academic year, but more than half of the country’s 400,000 teachers were on strike and just 10 percent of the estimated 9 million students nationwide opted to enrol. More than 100 striking teachers have also been charged under the Penal Code’s Section 505a for incitement, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation.

Those schools that did reopen in June were later closed again on July 9 when the third wave of the pandemic hit the country.

However, a photo of a military council notice in Ayeyarwady Region’s Yegyi Township has recently gone viral online instructing the township education officer to prepare the schools to reopen in November.

While an official date for reopening has not been announced, the junta’s information team alluded on Wednesday that such an event was approaching but had been obstructed by anti-coup entities.

They accused “political extremist members and supporters” of the National League for Democracy, the National Unity Government and the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw of committing arson in schools, inciting violence, and threatening education staff into joining the CDM “while officials made preparations for the reopening of schools.”

A spokesperson from the strike committee of a union for basic education staff—and a striking teacher himself—said his group is against any move by the military to reopen schools, and dismiss it as an attempt by the generals to normalise military administration.

As the people’s resistance war against the military and the “revolutionary momentum” continues to gain strength, he said that neither he nor his colleagues could break away from the movement.

“It is just impossible for us to become non-CDM [staff] again because we have stayed strong even under their rigorous oppression. In this current situation, we don’t care if they reopen schools—we will continue our resistance,” he said.

Presumably in connection with the reopening of schools, the military council also declared on its newspaper on Wednesday that it was launching a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination program through October 25 for students over the age of 12 using the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac. However, they provided details only for how those vaccines would be administered in the capital, Naypyitaw.

Education staff across the country confirmed to Myanmar Now that they had been told the same announcement by local junta authorities that school would open following the vaccination scheme.

Vaccination rates are low among adults, with rates unknown except for statistics released by the junta’s health department on Tuesday suggesting that just 4.2 million of Myanmar’s more than 50 million people have received two doses of any jab.

Khant Lu Aung, the father of a high school student from Mandalay who would be eligible for re-enrolment and vaccination, said he did not send his son back to school after the military seized power and would continue to keep him out of the junta’s education system.

“Under a dictatorship, I am not interested in whether the schools open or close. Even if they are really going to reopen, I won’t let my kid go there. Under their rule, whether it is healthcare or education, nothing is reliable,” Khant Lu Aung told Myanmar Now.

Nilar Win, a primary school teacher taking part in the CDM who chose not to reveal her location for security reasons, told Myanmar Now she was concerned about the safety of possibly bringing students back to school next month, given the health crisis and the ongoing instability in the country.

“It is very questionable that they are reopening schools for the children’s well-being,” she said, adding that the junta has even talked to teachers about “squeezing two school years into one” to make up for learning time lost during the pandemic.

Teaching modules are typically divided into 36 weeks of lessons, she explained, adding that no information had been shared with teachers about the upcoming curriculum.

Khant Lu Aung told Myanmar Now that he had prepared for his child to study some academic subjects online during the current school year but that he did not have a long-term plan for their education amid the unrest.

Myanmar Now tried to contact executive director of the junta’s education department Ko Lay Win to comment on the planned reopening of schools, but the calls went unanswered.