ONLY ON AP Myanmar military declares war on medics

The young doctor says he was on his way to a makeshift clinic in a monastery when a neighbor called to warn him to turn back: The armed forces that had seized control of Myanmar were raiding the place.

"All the medical equipments were confiscated," said the physician, who asked that The Associated Press conceal his identity out of fear of persecution. "And my colleagues, and four doctors and a nurse, were abducted while they are seeing the patients."

When armed forces seized control of Myanmar in February, doctors led what they called a civil disobedience movement to protest the takeover.

Since then, the military has attacked, arrested and even killed doctors and other medical professionals.

"The public called the doctors as heroes, heroes, due to our actions in the COVID pandemic last year," says the fugitive physician. "We have become criminals overnight, by the military."

Military forces have occupied public hospitals, forcing practitioners to go underground, treating wounded protesters in houses of worship, private homes, even alleyways.

"They're putting their personal lives on the line," says Dr. Jennifer Leigh, a Maryland epidemiologist and member of Physicians for Human Rights. "They're putting their families on the line. They're working in very difficult conditions, and they're doing it with full hearts."

The World Health Organization has documented more than 240 attacks on health care professionals, leading to dozens of injuries.

The watchdog group, Insecurity Insight, which analyzes conflicts around the globe, has counted at least 12 deaths.

Leigh says health workers with surgical tools have been charged with possession of a lethal weapon

"Attacking health care workers, it's a violation of international human rights law," she says. "It's a violation of medical neutrality."

Many practitioners have gone into hiding.

"I have to change my location frequently due to the threats, due to the dangers," the young doctor told the AP. "You can say that I'm lucky because, I have escaped many times."

He says colleagues pay for their own supplies and often operate by flashlight.

"We feel like that our country is going backward," he says.

Before the takeover, COVID-19 cases were on the decline.

The doctor worries about a surge as neighboring India and Thailand struggle with a highly contagious coronavirus variant.

"But the junta doesn't seem to mind this, and continues attacks on the health care, while the military and their families have all been vaccinated," he says.

A spokesman for the State Administration Council went has criticized doctors for refusing to work in government hospitals.

"They are killing people in cold blood," Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the deputy information minister, said in televised remarks. "If this is not genocide, what shall I call it?"

The fugitive doctor calls that absurd.

"Most people don't dare to go to the hospital, where they know that the troops that brutally murdered their family, their friends and beloved ones are at the hospitals," he says.

The physician is calling on the international community to pressure the ruling body to end the crackdown.

Meanwhile, he says he and his fellow health workers will continue to care for the sick and injured.

"It is our duty, it is our humanitarian duty to see the patients, even under the threat," he says. "Treating and seeing patients isn't illegal in any part of the world, but in Myanmar."

A military spokesperson responded to AP questions by sending an article blaming supposed election fraud for the countries problems.

IMAGE: AP