Kayah State, Myanmar – When the navy seized energy in February 2021, Dr Ye was residing a life many younger individuals in Myanmar solely dream of – working as a physician in London. Hailing from a military-supporting household, he had given little thought to politics earlier than then.
“Before the coup, I was brainwashed by them,” the 32-year-old instructed Al Jazeera throughout an interview in southern Shan State in December. “The coup enlightened me.”
But it additionally left him reeling with survivors’ guilt. He watched from afar as a whole bunch of individuals his age and youthful had been gunned down within the streets throughout peaceable pro-democracy protests. Soon, these protests morphed into an armed rebellion, with the navy deploying mass reprisals towards the civilian inhabitants.
“For a while, I was donating money, but I wasn’t happy with that. Every morning when I woke up, I was depressed seeing news about the killings, the bombings, the burned down villages,” he stated.
At his lowest level, Dr Ye even tried suicide.
“I decided I had to come back and participate in the revolution physically,” he stated.
In April 2022, he travelled to Kayah State, which shares a mountainous border with Thailand. A coalition of anti-coup armed teams has carved out important territory there and in neighbouring southern Shan.
Dr Ye’s determination to maneuver to this “liberated area” brought on a rift in his household as a result of his father is an official within the regime’s jail division within the nation’s capital of Naypyidaw.
“We totally split up, we don’t talk at all any more,” he stated, including that his father had even threatened him with arrest. “I don’t think he’ll ever change his mind.”
His background as a paediatrician made Dr Ye priceless in treating the various youngsters displaced by the battle, however like all healthcare professionals in Kayah, he’s additionally a short lived conflict medic.
“I have to stabilise the vital signs, check the blood pressure and heart rate,” he stated, of sufferers introduced in after being injured within the battle.
Raining down bombs
When a resistance fighter was rushed into her clinic in east Demoso with a critical damage to his proper leg from an air assault, Dr May set to work regardless of the excitement of warplanes overhead.
“We could hear the sound of a fighter jet flying over us, but we couldn’t run anywhere because we had to resuscitate the soldier. So, we just had to stay there and accept whatever might come,” stated the 33-year-old, who labored as a common practitioner at a non-public hospital in Mawlamyine earlier than the coup.
“I could work in a private hospital again or go abroad, but if I did that I’d feel like I wasn’t doing my duty for my country, for my people,” she stated.
In the primary half of 2023, east Demoso was one of many worst battle zones within the nation, and Dr May took to sleeping in a bomb shelter.
“Every day when I woke up, I heard the sound of artillery, and sometimes at 2 or 3am, we’d hear a fighter jet flying over our heads,” she stated. “We literally lived beneath the soil in the bunker. We had to sleep there, we had to eat there because we didn’t feel safe on the surface any more.”
When Al Jazeera visited east Demoso on January 4, it was eerily quiet. Fighting had since shifted to Loikaw, the state capital, however few civilians had returned house, leaving the realm largely devoid of individuals.
Dr May stated the navy targets healthcare services as a result of it is aware of resistance fighters obtain remedy there, although frequent civilians additionally depend on them for life-saving care.
“Because we’ve been taking care of our comrades, including war injuries, and that’s not good for these …,” she pauses considering of the precise phrase. “These dogs.”
Since the coup, individuals in Myanmar have taken to referring to regime troopers as sit-kway, or “military dogs”.
The Geneva Convention says that well being services and cellular well being items “may in no circumstances be attacked”.
After months of near-misses, Dr May’s hospital was hit by an air raid in May 2023.
“It felt like I’m suddenly on a battlefield, I’m inside my own coffin, everything flashed before my eyes,” she stated. Luckily, no one was killed, however the inpatient buildings had been destroyed.
Dr May’s hospital has since moved to a extra secure space within the state and Dr Ye stated his facility has additionally relocated three or 4 instances. Dr Oak, who did autopsies of the victims of the Christmas Eve bloodbath, stated he has needed to transfer twice as effectively. Once, a missile landed subsequent to his hospital in Nanmekhon in Demoso township. The second time, an air raid hit his facility in northern Loikaw township. Dr Oak was taking a break, utilizing the web on the town, however 4 of his medics had been killed.
For this motive, most hospitals in Kayah usually are not solely hidden but additionally come outfitted with bomb shelters.
On the entrance traces
When Al Jazeera visited one in all these clandestine hospitals in late December, a member of the Demoso People’s Defence Force (PDF) was groaning in his mattress.
“It hurts so much I can’t sleep,” he stated. The PDF is a pro-democracy armed group with items unfold out throughout the nation. The fighter’s legs had been badly injured by an air assault in Loikaw; medical doctors had already amputated one in all his ft.
Half of the 12 sufferers within the hospital had been injured by landmines in Moebye, a city in southern Shan that’s largely managed by the resistance. The navy seemingly rigged it with explosives earlier than retreating in September 2022.
A 20-year-old lady working as a nurse on the clinic was a trainee nurse at Loikaw Hospital earlier than the coup. She spent six months as a front-line medic for the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), one other post-coup armed group, earlier than coming to the hospital.
“I want to help any way I can,” she stated, declining to share her title for worry of reprisals. “Nothing is simply too laborious for me to assist individuals, to save lots of individuals.
Another 20-year-old KNDF medic, who was a highschool pupil when the navy seized energy, stated he should rush into the battlefield unarmed to extract wounded troopers.
“Our rule is medic, no gun. I see the military shoot my comrades and I want to shoot them so badly, but I can’t,” he stated.
In Loikaw city, the KNDF battalion commander overseeing the medical response instructed Al Jazeera three of his medics had been killed because the resistance launched an offensive to grab the capital within the closing months of final yr.
“They send aerial drones to survey the area and if they find us, they send in an air strike, so we have to move around every few days,” he stated.
He continues to wish for a peaceable decision to the disaster however is ready to combat until the top.
“We always pray for their compassion, that they will see the truth and turn to us and surrender, but they never do,” he stated. “So, we have to wipe them out once and for all.”
Despite the hostile and terrifying surroundings, Dr Ye says he has discovered surprising fulfilment and understanding in Kayah.
“I didn’t know much about all the difficulties going on in the border areas because I chose not to, I think,” Dr Ye stated. “Before the coup, I wasn’t the only one. Most of the Bamars, we chose not to think about the conflict.”
For a long time, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have struggled underneath navy occupation and oppression, whereas Bamar-majority areas not often noticed armed battle. But right now, the rebellion towards navy rule has taken root within the central Bamar heartland as effectively, and lots of Bamar youths have joined ethnic armed teams within the borderlands.
Dr Ye stated it was his “adamant hope” that there can be better ethnic unity after the revolution. When requested about his plans after the conflict, he says he might want to assist with the “rehabilitation” of Myanmar.
“I used to have so many dreams in London, but I don’t want to think about that because this is my life now,” he stated. “My country needs me. Even if the revolution was over tomorrow, I couldn’t go back to London right away because my people will still need me for a while.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/29/in-myanmars-kayah-medics-treat-war-wounded-in-hidden-hospitals?traffic_source=rss
