: Myanmar’s Military Has Weaponized COVID-19. In My Village, We Did Everything We Could to Save Ourselves #WorldNEWS My village was among the first hit when a third wave of COVID-19 swept across Myanmar

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Myanmar’s Military Has Weaponized COVID-19. In My Village, We Did Everything We Could to Save Ourselves #WorldNEWS
My village was among the first hit when a third wave of COVID-19 swept across Myanmar starting in May. My mother, father, sister and wife all fell ill. We already lived in terror of the military, which seized power from the civilian government on Feb. 1 and has since killed 946 people. When COVID-19 arrived in my native Tedim township in western Myanmars Chin State, I feared we would all die from the virus but, by the grace of God, we have survived.
Officially, just over 7,500 people have died from COVID-19 since the coup—already enough to make Myanmar’s per capita death rate the worst in Southeast Asia. But few people are officially tested and even fewer are treated at public hospitals, so the real death toll is unknown. We do know that in recent weeks funeral homes and crematoriums across the country have been overwhelmed.
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Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, in an Aug. 1 speech in which he declared himself prime minister, accused protesters who oppose military rule of deliberately spreading COVID-19. But it is the generals who have weaponized COVID-19, turning this deadly pandemic into yet another attempt to control a population that has shown steadfast resistance.

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Since the coup, the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is called, has targeted medical workers, who have been at the forefront of a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement. More than 150 doctors and nurses have been arrested, and as of July, the Tatmadaw had committed 240 attacks on healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization; many of those attacked were first responders to military violence.

The New York TimesHealth care workers watch protesters demonstrate against Myanmars military coup in Myanmars capital of Yangon, Feb. 28.
The Tatmadaw has also deliberately obstructed lifesaving care to COVID-19 patients across the country. Soldiers have seized oxygen cylinders and blocked people from refilling them. While the military has issued calls for volunteers to aid its own COVID-19 prevention efforts, it has also raided and looted community-run clinics. On July 16, security forces posed as COVID-19 patients in order to entrap and arrest medical volunteers.
Meanwhile, ethnic states and other areas of armed resistance to military rule are facing the double burden of ongoing military attacks, which have displaced 230,000 people since the coup. Amid COVID-19 movement restrictions, regime forces continue to shell civilian areas, burn homes and clash with resistance groups.
In recent weeks in my native Chin State, the military has deployed more troops, fired indiscriminately into villages, raided homes and destroyed food supplies, causing hundreds to flee.

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