Swiss UN staffer in Myanmar tests positive for coronavirus

Covid-19

She is the first foreign national to test positive; Myanmar now has eight confirmed cases

Published on Mar 28, 2020

Health workers prepare to disinfect the Mya Yee Nandar housing in Mandalay after a resident tested positive for coronavirus on Friday (Photo: Yan Moe Naing/Myanmar Now)

A United Nations international staff member in Myanmar has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, with the country reporting its eighth confirmed case just after midnight on Saturday.

The 58-year-old Swiss national was admitted to a government hospital in the capital Naypyitaw on Thursday with a cough, sickness and diarrhea, the Ministry of Health and Sport announced.

She arrived in Naypyitaw from Geneva through Bangkok on March 18 and was quarantined at a hotel, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that on March 13, while in Switzerland, she was in close contact for two hours with her father, who was also diagnosed with the Covid-19 disease. She developed symptoms on March 22.

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While the health ministry did not say the patient’s profession, the UN office in Myanmar issued a statement a few hours after the government's confirming one of its international staff members had tested positive.

"As the staff member began to experience symptoms consistent with Covid-19, (she) was taken to and isolated in a designated public hospital where the test was taken," said the statement.

The highly contagious virus has claimed more than 27,000 lives globally and infected just under 600,000 people, according to a tally updated Saturday.

Myanmar, with its desperately underfunded healthcare system, has so far tested 324 people despite a call from the World Health Organisation to “test, test, test” for the virus.

Among the eight individuals who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Myanmar, the Swiss national is the first foreigner, though another patient is from Myanmar but holds US citizenship.

One of the last patients is a 60-year-old tour guide who has not travelled overseas in the past two weeks before her diagnosis, according to the ministry. However, she travelled with French tourists locally, meaning she could be the first case of local transmission.

Her symptoms include coughing and vomiting, and on Thursday she was admitted to Yangon General Hospital.

Another patient is a 29-year-old Myanmar citizen who recently came back from the UK. He travelled together to Barbados with another patient who was diagnosed on Wednesday.

Hours before the health ministry's official announcement, a screenshot of the list of three latest patients identifying their names, ages and the hospitals where they are receiving treatment circulated on Facebook. It is not known who leaked the information.

Myanmar announced its first two confirmed cases on March 23, making it one of the last few countries in the world to declare the presence of the virus.

Seven of the eight cases Myanmar has so far confirmed are imported, with the patients recently travelling from the US, UK, Australia, or Switzerland.

Three patients are in their 50s or 60s, while the rest are in their 20s or 30s.

Tin Htet Paing

Tin Htet Paing is Assistant Editor with Myanmar Now

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Prominent local USDP supporter survives shooting attack in Sagaing

Khin Maung Oo is accused of helping instigate an attack against NLD supporters ahead of last year’s election

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

Khin Maung Oo (right) receiving an honorary award from the USDP in January (Facebook)

A prominent local supporter of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was shot last week in the Sagaing Region town of Kanbalu but survived the attack, local residents said.

Khin Maung Oo, who received an award from the party in January after supporting it during last year’s election, is accused of informing authorities about the activities of anti-coup protesters in the area.

On the evening of June 17, two gunmen came to his house and shot him, according to several Kanbalu residents who spoke to Myanmar Now. He is now receiving treatment in Mandalay, the residents said.

Earlier this month a local anti-regime guerilla group killed a police officer in an attack in Kanbalu, but no group has taken responsibility for the attack on Khin Maung Oo.

A well-known town’s elder in Kanbalu named Nyan Min Tun has been detained in relation to the shooting, a relative told Myanmar Now.

“They tried to put all the blame on Nyan Min Tun and raided his house the same day of the attack,” she said.

He was not home during the raid, but the next day authorities came to his house again and brought him to the police station, she added.

“They told him to come to the police station for a bit as they had questions to ask him regarding the incident. And then they didn’t let him go,” she said.

Nyan Min Tun has not been charged in relation to the shooting; instead he is now being hit with an incitement charge under section 505a of the Penal Code. The supposed justification for the charge is unclear.

Khin Maung Oo is a former employee of the General Administration Department. He was an active member of the United Democratic Party (UDP) before it was dissolved ahead of the 2020 elections, according to Kanbalu locals.

After Myanmar Now published a report on the UDP’s wealthy fugitive chair Kyaw Myint, the Union Election Commission probed the party and dissolved it in October 2020.

Khin Maung Oo then became heavily involved in the USDP election campaign in Kanbalu.

During the campaign, a USDP mob beat an NLD supporter to death in Kanbalu Township’s Karboe village. Khin Maung Oo was taken in for questioning by the police after the incident.

He was not charged, but local residents alleged that he was one of the USDP members who instigated the Karboe attack. Khin Maung Oo did not answer calls seeking comment on the allegations against him.

A photo from January shows Khin Maung Oo accepting an award from a USDP party representative, though it is unclear what the award was for.

Last week armed USDP members attacked NLD supporters in Kanbalu’s Yi Dway village and burned down four homes.

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Man with a tattoos of Suu Kyi and her father killed in regime custody

Villagers say Zeyar Lin was not involved in with any guerilla groups, but he may have been singled out because of his tattoo of the detained leader

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

Caption- Zeyar Lin (far right) seen in a photo published by military propaganda newspapers after his death on Wednesday

A man died in regime custody earlier this week after troops raided his village in Sagaing Region and detained him on suspicion of starting a fire at a local school.

Zeyar Lin, 33, was among six men arrested in the raid on Lelzin village in Monywa Township on Monday.

The others were Kyaw Nanda, Aung Aung, Kyaw Myo Htwe, San Min Htet, and Ba Chit, who also goes by the name Chit Tun Naing. Their whereabouts and condition is unknown.

On Tuesday, volunteers from the morgue at the Monywa Public Hospital told Zeyar Lin’s wife to come and retrieve his body, which bore signs of torture.

“The back of his head was split open. There were about three inches of bruises all over his cheeks, chin and forehead,” a Lelzin villager who is now in hiding told Myanmar Now.

The roughly fifty soldiers who came to the village also viciously beat about 15 people who they saw in the street, according to locals.

“Their hands were bruised. One person… had bruises all over his back and it was pretty bad. He couldn’t even sleep laying on his back,” another Lelzin local said.

Several villagers said the fire that prompted the soldiers’ arrival was accidental. “The snitches in our village called them even though it was just a small fire. We didn’t even see the flames,” the second villager said.

Unidentified attackers have targeted schools across the country in recent weeks with arson and bomb attacks, in what may be attempts by anti-regime groups to bolster a nationwide boycott of the junta’s education system.

But villagers said Zeyar Lin, who leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, had not taken part in any guerilla activity.

“The guy killed was not involved in anything. But he had tattoos of Amay Suu and Bogyoke Aung San,” the first villager told Myanmar Now, referring to the detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, the independence hero of the Bamar majority.

Zeyar Lin’s wife, Ohnmar Khine, said hospital staff told her that the body arrived in a military truck at around 3am on Tuesday.

Her husband was arrested while on his way to visit his mother, who lives near the school where the fire broke out, she added.

The military council announced in several newspapers on Wednesday that security forces arrested six men in relation to the fire and also seized weapons.

The report was accompanied by a photograph of the men, including Zeyar Lin, after their arrest. He did not appear to have any life-threatening injuries in the picture and the report did not mention that he later died.

On Wednesday, a local guerrilla group responded to the raid by shooting at the home of an alleged informant in the village. The target was not injured but his daughter was killed, according to several Lelzin locals. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the details.

The attack led to another raid by the military, during which four more people were arrested as soldiers fired their guns repeatedly.

The village now lies virtually abandoned, with only those who support the military left behind. “They opened fire so many times at the entrance to the village,” said the second villager. “Everyone in the village fled.”

Arbitrary Arrests

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Mindat IDPs return home during temporary ceasefire

More than 80 percent of IDPs come back to the Chin State town, but few are expected to stay beyond the two-week ceasefire

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

Locals who had fled fighting in Mindat, Chin State returned home after a ceasefire was agreed to between the regime military and the local People’s Defence Force (PDF), according to a committee working with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the township.

After one week of negotiations involving local leaders and religious figures, the two forces agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday. The agreement is only valid until July 4.

More than 20,000 locals have been displaced from Mindat since mid-May by clashes. More than 80 percent have returned home in recent days, the Mindat Township IDP Management Committee has stated.

They had been taking shelter in 80 villages in the region, according to Lawrence, a representative of the committee.

“There’s only a little more than 1,000 IDPs left in the villages,” Lawrence told Myanmar Now.

The majority of the IDPs returned to check on the condition of their homes, many of which were raided when the junta’s armed forces took over Mindat town.

Lawrence noted that this is the season in which Mindat farmers typically cultivate konjac, and the displacement has interrupted their livelihoods and food security.

A member of the anti-coup Mindat Township People’s Administration Team said that while the majority of IDPs have returned following the temporary ceasefire, only a few are expected to stay.

After three consecutive days of clashes in April, the military asked the local defence group to meet with them for negotiations, but the two sides were not able to come to an agreement. Clashes resumed on the night of May 12.

On May 13, the military council imposed martial law in Mindat, and began carrying out raids. They officially seized the town on May 15.

The military council’s armed forces attacked villages sheltering IDPs, including firing heavy artillery at an IDP camp despite the display of a white flag. They also blocked routes through which rations and medical supplies could be sent to the displaced persons.

According to information provided by Mindat’s IDP management committee, by the third week of June, seven people, including a six-day-old baby, a seven-month-old baby, a 13-year-old child, a pregnant woman, and three other adults had died due to a lack of healthcare during their displacement.

A local man who was involved in the negotiations between the regime’s armed forces and the PDF said that the temporary ceasefire was made with these conditions in mind.

“The elderly are struggling a lot. So are the sick and disabled,” he told Myanmar Now.
“Unidentified thieves were destroying the town and people’s homes. People are losing their homes and livelihoods. The entire town became a ghost town. So religious figures from all backgrounds joined hands to pray and plan to bring the town back to life.”

For the period of the ceasefire, both the Mindat PDF and the military agreed to stop carrying out armed searches of people, shooting weapons, pressuring or threatening departmental staff or those involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement, and to allow vehicles carrying aid to IDPs to pass through the town.

Military vehicles stationed on the town’s two main roads—Shwe Aung Thar and Htin Chaung—have since retreated, and some trucks have come to the town to provide supplies, locals said.