(DR. Than Naing Oo’s post from the EURASIA REVIEW on 06 September 2022.)
The dirt road leading to the hospital had become a
mud field. He has just operated on a
villager who stepped on a landmine. His next case was a routine one, an
appendectomy. Not far from the hospital,
at the village of Sezin, a fierce fight had recently taken place between the
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) joined by the newly minted Peoples Defense
Forces (PDF).
They were squaring off against Burma’s military known at the Tatmadaw who were reinforced by the local Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA). The fighting had produced a flood of refugees, many badly wounded. There is a risk the hospital may need to be closed or relocated should the fighting spread. Dr. Min has made contingency plans for such a scenario – he has to; after being in this war zone for the past 12 months, he must prepare for everything.
What a
difference the past eighteen months have made not just for Dr. Soe Min, but
also for the country of Myanmar as a whole.
In his early 50s, he was a fully trained general surgeon practicing at a
premier teaching hospital in Yangon, the biggest city in the country. In addition, he was also a well-known blogger
sharing his medical knowledge as well as social activism on Myanmar’s most
widely used media platform, Facebook.
Then came the
Myanmar military coup of 1st February 2021, and his life, as well as the
country’s, has changed forever. The military coup sparked a civic uprising as
millions demonstrated against the coup.
At the tip of the protest movement, known as the Civil Disobedience
Movement (CDM), were health care workers and the medical community in
particular, joined by students, educators, civil servants—this was an uprising
of Myanmar’s entire civil society. The
military’s response was brutal.
Demonstrators
were gunned down on the streets. The Hlaing Thar Yar massacre of March 2021 was just one example. Hundreds
of protesters in this poor Yangon suburb were gunned down by the military. Dr.
Min rushed to Hlaing Thar Yar hospital hoping to help treat the wounded. The soldiers blocked him and others from
treating the wounded. In his estimate
close to a hundred people were killed.
And it was just one of the many crackdowns taking place in the country.
Many youths lost
hope in the non-violent opposition and fled to ethnic areas for military
training and undertake armed struggle.
They formed local People Defense Forces (PDF) and fought back using
captured guns, hand-made firearms–anything.
The military continued its assault on the Myanmar people using arrests,
torture, murder and terror tactics to try and subdue the uprising.
Then came the
COVID epidemic. A perfect biological
weapon for the military. The junta distributed scarce vaccine to the military
and its supporters. Those opposing the
regime were denied treatment. Dr. Min
was an in charge of a large COVID care center in Yangon named Irrawaddy. The
junta ordered that center shut down and
persecuted doctors who treated COVID patients at private hospitals and
clinics.
One of Dr. Min’s colleagues and the doctor in charge of the national COVID vaccination program, Dr. Htar Htar Lin, was arrested for running the program and exposing fraud and abuse. When Dr. Min blogged about these experiences, (lack of care for COVID patients that he had tried to tend to and the Hlaing Thar Yar casualties) the junta came looking for him. He decided that instead of sitting idle in a jail cell, he’d continue serving Myanmar and the democracy movement through medicine.
In June 2021, disguised, he escaped to northern
Myanmar finally settling in the village of Sezin, a remote area in the jungle
controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) but contested by the
Tatmadaw. A small village of 2,000, it
had no healthcare and no doctor. He
established a small, free clinic treating anyone who walked in. Many had never met a doctor, let alone a medical
specialist, before.
Over the next
few months, Dr. Min started expanding his clinic into a small field hospital
capable of performing some surgeries. It was out of necessity. The nearest
hospital with an operating room was a day’s travel away over a mud road; too
far for most people. Moreover, it had a
doctor but no surgeon.
As word spread
of “Dr. Min” he was joined by a few nurses that also had to flee to
safety. He began a program where they
trained local people in becoming medical assistants. Some of them eventually
became corpsmen for the PDF. Slowly but
surely, a healthcare system, fragile and minimal as it was, began to come
together.
As military activity in the region grew closer, he decided to relocate the field hospital a few miles further away from Sezin to a more remote location. Conditions were primitive. Electricity is only through diesel generators and there is no running water. In the meantime, he continued to blog sharing his experience in the jungle while providing insights, critiques and comments on the Spring Revolution taking place in the country.
He named his
blog “Diaries from Camp Jang Geum”; Jang Geum being the name of a character
from the popular Korean soap opera series watched by many in Myanmar. Dr. Min quickly built-up many followers. He
is now considered the most trusted influencer in Myanmar. There are a few other
motivational or celebrity influencers such as Pencilo or Myo Yan Naung Thein
etc. waging a similar online propaganda war against the military junta.
However, most of them have taken up political asylum
in the west. Dr. Min decided to remain in Myanmar and help people no matter the
difficulties. Working independently, he
built his credibility and reinforced the notion that his work was solely for
the people of Myanmar. His opinions,
comments and writings are highly regarded by Myanmar’s netizens. His experience
of hardships in the jungle and revolutionary aspirations are followed by
millions and are shared by thousands in Myanmar.
Little-by-little
Dr. Min expanded the services his hospital could provide. He was joined by
another young CDM doctor whom he trained to become a field surgeon. He was
later able to convince an OBGYN to join him.
Donations, especially of medical equipment, came through his former
network of healthcare providers. Remoteness is both a blessing and a curse. It
protects the hospital from incursions from the military, but supply chains
became hard to sustain.
The situation is somewhat akin to the early days of
the Mae Tao charity clinic which served refugees fleeing the war-torn villages
in Karen state. 30 years later Mae Tao clinic has become a large and
comprehensive community health center with many western donors and the founder,
Dr. Cynthia Maung, has numerous awards and widely recognition for her selfless
volunteerism. However, her clinic is
located safely inside Thailand.
In the twelve months since he has been in the area, fighting has escalated all over Myanmar, but the fiercest battles are taking place in the states of Kayah (Karenni), Karen, Chin, Kachin, Sagaing and northern Magway. Dr. Min’s hospital is right inside Kachin state nor far from the Sagaing border.
PDF forces
generally rely on ambushes and landmines while the military relies on brute
force—airstrikes, artillery, heavy weapons, and terror as they burn villages,
commit summary executions, and also use rape as a weapon. Tens of thousands of civilians have become
internally displaced people (IDP). Those that need medical care come to Dr.
Min’s clinic for help.
Following the
recent fight at the village of Sezin, where KIA and PDF forces had to retreat,
he has heard firsthand horror stories through badly wounded villagers who make
it to his hospital. Myanmar soldiers looted all the valuables and burnt down
the whole village. A few elderly and infirmed who couldn’t run from the army
were simply shot on the spot.
Such horror
stories were shared to Dr. Min from his patients who are now IDPs. Dr. Min felt compelled, despite security
concerns, to bring the story of Sezin to the world. He turned to his blog and wrote about the
death and destruction wrought by the Tatmadaw on innocent civilians.
Sometimes, Dr.
Min dreams about eventually building up his hospital into another famous jungle
hospital in Myanmar, the one built by Dr. Gordon Seagrave (the author of “The
Burma Surgeon”) in Namhkan, a small and remote town in the Shan state of Burma
in the 1950s. Dr Seagrave’s missionary
legacy is his awareness of the importance and subsequent emphasis on good
training of ancillary medical staff such as nurses, midwives and health
assistants. That’s what is truly needed in rural Myanmar.
In order to do
so it means he will have to settle in this area for decades as a trainer, just
like Dr Seagrave. His original sacrifice in giving up a comfortable home and
job was to be of assistance during the uprising. Once the junta is toppled, he needs not be
worried about being arrested and should be able to return home. Such a dilemma
of possibilities! But for now, the revolution must come first.
Dr. Min takes a
deep breath as he prepares for the next patients to arrive. Yet again it will be another long day. But he is ready to fight on—by healing those
in need and through power of the pen though his blog.
(Dr Soe Min granted access to author Than N.
Oo who is one of the founders of the advocacy group, Free Myanmar.)
