Oct 21, 2010

Burma: Rights Abuse Fuels Health Crisis


Dire heath crisis in Burma is driven by disinvestment in health, protracted conflict and widespread abuses of human rights.

 

Below is an article published by The Epoch Times:

 

The health of civilians in the conflict-affected zones of eastern Burma, particularly women and children, is among the worst in the world, says a new report released in Bangkok on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

 

Having surveyed 21 townships in conflict zones, researchers discovered that over 40 percent of children below 5 years of age are acutely malnourished and one in seven of them will die before reaching this age.

 

Conducted by a network of community organizations, the report “Diagnosis: Critical” says the chronic health crisis witnessed in eastern Burma is the result of official disinvestment in health, a protracted conflict, and widespread human rights abuses.

 

“In eastern Burma the mortality rate for under 5-year-old children is comparable to conflict zones of the DR Congo and Sudan,” said Nai Aye Lwin from the Backpack Health Worker Team, which assists communities inside Burma.

 

“We found that 60 percent of these deaths of children under 5 were due to preventable diseases,” he said.

 

“Our survey shows a clear link between human rights violations and poor health indicators in families who suffer forced labor: children will be two and half times more likely to die,” said Nai.

 

The report also found that one in three people had experienced in the previous year some form of human rights abuse at the hands of the military.

 

“Community groups are constrained by [a] lack of resources and ongoing human rights abuses by the military regime. … In order to properly address the needs of eastern Burma’s health crisis, the human rights abuses must end,” said Nai.

 

Burma last year had a US$2.5 billion trade surplus, said Nai, but the military junta only spends 1.8 percent of its total budget on health and 40 percent goes to the military.

 

Since Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, various ethnic groups in the east of the country have sought greater autonomy, resulting in cases of armed rebellions. Currently a number of armed groups in eastern Burma, such as the Karen National Liberation Army and the Shan Army-South, continue to oppose the military junta that has ruled the ethnically diverse country since 1962.

 

In dealing with these groups, part of the Burmese military’s strategy includes the targeting of the civilian population, which has resulted in ongoing human rights abuses.

 

Dr. Cynthia Muang, who has a health clinic on the Thai-Burma border and is chairwoman of the Burma Medical Association, said the health crisis over the past decade has gradually been getting worse.

 

“There remain widespread human rights abuses that force people to flee their homes, or [the military] blocks access to whatever health services there are,” said Muang.

 

“There are restrictions on humanitarian assistance, particularly international humanitarian assistance to some of these worst-hit communities.”

 

At her clinic at the border town of Mae Tao, Muang said that despite the border being closed, sick Burmese would cross over at night to seek aid. “People still find a way, they take the risk to come to Thailand at nighttime,” she said.

 

Community health workers, she said, are doing their best to provide health care but they are finding it difficult due to the ongoing conflict and the large number of displaced people.

 

There are an estimated 140,000 Burmese now living in Thai refugee camps while a further 2 million toil in the kingdom as migrant workers (most of whom do so illegally).

 

Dr. Voravit Suwanvanichkij, a research associate from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the health crisis in eastern Burma has destabilizing consequences for the Southeast Asian region, and for Thailand in particular.

 

 “We are talking about a 2,000-kilometer-long [about 1,240 miles] border of which under 5 percent is well demarcated … so it is no barrier to infectious diseases,” said Voravit.

 

Over the past decade, Voravit said that 90 percent of Thailand’s cases of malaria are found on the Thai-Burma border, along with other diseases that have been under control in Thailand, such as elephantiasis.

 

“If this situation continues and a resistant [form of] malaria were to spread in this region and beyond, it would be a catastrophe,” he said while adding that if a major SARS-like epidemic was to occur, it would be difficult to contain in this area.

 

“If these issues are not addressed, Thailand and the region will have to bear the brunt of Burma’s health failures,” Voravit said.

 

Next month the military junta is holding a set of national elections panned by critics who say they are nothing but a farce designed to further entrench military rule.