John Zaw
While health officials struggle to stem the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) tide in Rakhine state, Myanmar, thousands of civilians have been fleeing their homes due to fighting in the restive region.
They have no time to worry about Covid-19 as their main concern is to escape the areas where fighting is raging in the conflict-torn nation.
Sittwe, the state capital, has become a contagion hotspot with more than 400 cases in almost all townships since August 16. The state has been under lockdown including stay-at-home orders and a 9.00pm to 4.00am curfew.
The pandemic has also spread to Yangon, the country’s commercial hub, where seven townships have been under semi-lockdown since September1.
As of September 3, Myanmar reported 1,058 Covid-19 cases with six deaths and 359 recoveries, according to health officials.
The government has sent healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and young volunteers, to the front line in Sittwe, where the general hospital is the main facility for treating Covid-19 patients.
Reports are emerging of newly displaced people, civilian casualties and arbitrary arrests as the secessionist conflict continues in parallel with the pandemic.
Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, extended its unilateral ceasefire to September 30 to allow the nation to fight the contagion, but areas where the Arakan Army operates remain excluded from the truce.
The Tatmadaw said the move is in response to the call by the United Nations (UN) secretary-general, António Guterres, for a global ceasefire. Pope Francis and Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon, also called for a ceasefire to help fight the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Tatmadaw has stepped up its offensive against the Arakan Army, designated a terrorist organisation by the government.
Rakhine and neighbouring Chin state have been embroiled in an intensifying conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army since December 2018 that has led to scores of civilian casualties and displaced thousands.
The government of state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi can do little since the military offensive is beyond the its oversight as security and border affairs are controlled by the Tatmadaw as enshrined in the 2008 constitution.
“Nobody has won a war in this country. Peace is possible, peace is the only way”
Cardinal Bo
More than 120,000 Rohingya have remained in squalid camps since violence erupted in 2012. The crisis has led to more than 700,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh due to the military crackdown in August 2017.
So far there have been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in camps for internally displaced persons in Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, Shan and Karen states.
Since Myanmar’s first Covid-19 case was confirmed on March 23, ethnic armed groups have called for a nationwide ceasefire to fight the coronavirus with unity.
“Nobody has won a war in this country. Peace is possible, peace is the only way,” Cardinal Bo said.
Despite the surge in cases in Rakhine, people in camps for internally displaced persons lack awareness and guidelines from the health ministry as slow 2G Internet connection is only available in some townships.
“Access to timely and accurate information about the risks of Covid-19 as well as preventive measures is essential to ensuring people’s safety,” Ola Almgren, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said on September 1.
“The recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Rakhine complicates the provision of ongoing humanitarian assistance and protection services to more than 670,000 vulnerable people by the UN and its partners,” he said.
In her opening remarks at the recent Panglong peace conference, Suu Kyi said peace building is not only about stopping shooting and bombing, it is also about rejecting the logic of the current “bad political culture” in which might makes right and people must rely on arms to be recognised or succeed.
As the nation fights the virus, all armed groups need to return to the negotiation table and solve their political problems through dialogue instead of arming.
Now is the right time to carry out peace building in a nation underdeveloped and impoverished as a result of over 60 years of civil war. UCAN/La Croix
