Almost 90 healthcare workers have lost their lives in military and police raids and other junta-associated violence since the February 2021 coup d’etat, a network of medical workers associated with the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement told Radio Free Asia on Monday.
In most cases, the deaths were the result of arrests or targeted violence initiated by the military junta, according to Dr. Lwan Wai, a Yangon-based member of the Civil Disobedience Movement Medical Network.
“Our country is the only country in which health care workers have to worry about losing their lives simply because of treating a patient,” he said. “I have never heard of such a situation in any other country.”
The tally of 89 doctors and health care workers killed and 110 injured since the coup was released following last week’s decision by the junta to close a private hospital in Mandalay city for three months after it had employed two doctors who had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, in which public employees quit their government jobs to protest the coup.
In May, the junta revoked the business licenses and shut down three other Mandalay hospitals that employed CDM healthcare workers.
Tens of thousands of Myanmar’s government employees have left their jobs in protest of the coup as part of CDM, and more than 45,000 doctors and health workers have participated in the movement.
The CDM Medical Network also reported on Monday that 853 doctors and health workers have been arrested by the junta since the coup. In 2022 alone, the junta fired and revoked the licenses of 557 doctors associated with the movement.
The arrests, closures, and raids on medical clinics and buildings are all attempts by the junta to punish or intimidate healthcare workers, according to the network.
Nurses, medical students, doctors
May Zon Moe, a 28-year-old CDM nurse from Aye Mya Thar Yar District Hospital in Bago region, was one of the healthcare workers killed by the junta, according to the network.
Those close to her say she was arrested and tortured to death by junta soldiers last February as she was returning from a mountain ridge where she had given midwife services to a patient.
In another incident, Thal Thal Win, a 40-year-old nurse from Moe Dar Gyi village of Katha township in Sagaing region was killed after being arrested by a junta patrol on Feb. 21, local residents said.
On May 11, 23-year-old Soe Moe Naing, a second-year student at Pakokku Nursing and Midwifery Training School in Magway, was shot and killed by junta troops while treating a wounded member of a People’s Defense Force.
Health officials from the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG – made up of junta opponents and former government leaders – said that medical personnel were killed and hospitals and clinics were damaged on May 20 due to the junta’s targeted air strikes and ground attacks.
More recently, Dr. Zaw Htoi Aung died in a mine explosion on Aug. 15 as he was being transferred from Monywa Prison in Sagaing region. He was a CDM member and a key official in the Chindwin Medical Network, which provides health care to refugees in Sagaing.
The 34-year-old was arrested by the military council in September 2021 and sentenced to 11 years in prison under the Anti-Terrorism Act. It was unknown which organization was responsible for the landmine that killed him.
RFA contacted junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun seeking comment on the tally of healthcare worker deaths, but he did not respond.
NUG Health Minister Dr. Zaw Wai Soe said that justice will be served for the health workers who have lost their lives.
“We will continue to fight till we can serve justice for those who sacrificed their lives,” he told RFA. “We have to record and honor these people as true martyrs.”
