Myanmar dispatches: ‘we need humanitarian aid in Min Dat right NOW’

JRIST

URIST Staff
JUNE 11, 2021

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – One of our Myanmar law students reporting for JURIST calls on the international community to help thousands of Myanmar people displaced from their homes in Min Dat, Chin State, by recent junta military action. She also comments on a disquieting surge in COVID-19 in Kalay State, near the border with India.

The military junta is putting enormous pressure on Min Dat. They mainly target unarmed villagers. They use unarmed civilians as human shields and pressure PDF [People’s Defence Force] and CDF [Chin Defence Force] soldiers to retreat. People’s defense forces have no choice but at the verge of threats against lives, they have to retreat.

In June and July, there’s heavy and continuous rain in Chin State so many civilians have to flee away into the forest and sleep without shelter. They can’t go to refugee camps in Magway Division due to risks on the way and spread of covid-19. All routes to Min Dat are blocked so we can’t send any food, water, and medicine. Military juntas are committing crimes against humanity. At this rate, people might die of hunger and lack of medical aids before they die of military juntas’ direct bullets. Military juntas do not simply aim to win a war or rule a country. They deeply aim to take our lives mercilessly.

We really need Humanitarian aid in Min Dat, Myanmar, right NOW. We really hope to get help from the international community. I hope UNHCR and ICRC will start helping us in practice. We’re suffering every day. Our people from every part of the country are living in fear every day.

It’s not the time to play political ideology games. It’s a matter of life and death. The answer is as clear as black and white. We all know who the offender and the victims are. We know many world leaders hear us but why isn’t there any change yet. If not now, when?

Myanmar people are participating in this Revolution in the midst of Covid-19 World Pandemic. It’s been over 4 months and we are protesting in crowds every day just because we’re scared of living in fear rather than dying due to covid-19 virus. But this does not mean Myanmar is free of covid-19. We’re facing this pandemic just as the rest of the world. We forgot about covid for a while but the virus is reminding us of its existence again. Currently, at Eait soot Covid Center in Kalay, there’re more than 100 confirmed cases of covid-19. It’s very hard to get oxygen tanks there because the vehicle carrying oxygen tanks breaks down on the way, some routes are blocked and the bridges are also destroyed.

Myanmar people have few choices. The only options we have are cause of death; it could be covid-19, gunshots, bombs, fire, torture, hunger, etc. Sometimes this sounds funny but it isn’t really a joke at all.

Myanmar people do not have super power. We are human too. But where are our human rights?

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