First Myanmar’s military junta came for the civil society activists and political opposition as it moved brutally to suppress demands for democracy following the February 2021 coup. But now it is increasingly coming for the very people societies rely on most, during times of conflict and in this pandemic era: health workers. There is growing evidence that military forces are targeting health workers and medical supplies as part of the bloody repression they have unleashed against all who dare stand in their way.

On 13 July, the military were reported to have opened fire on a group of civilians who were doing nothing more than queuing to refill oxygen cylinders in the city of Yangon. People were forced to scatter without being able to collect the vital oxygen they had come for, running to save their lives at the price of helping their COVID-19-stricken relatives. On 20 July, the military were reported to have stolen cash, medicines and personal protective equipment supplies that had been collected by monks in the city of Mongkok to help the local community. The junta is also obstructing health workers from treating those its forces has injured. The inability of health workers to access people targeted in military airstrikes has directly added to Myanmar’s grim death toll.

It seems clear that the military junta is trying to use the essential supplies people need during the pandemic as bargaining chips. It is closing down civilian initiatives to distribute medical supplies and giving itself the power to decide who lives and who dies. Once it becomes a monopoly supplier, the junta will be able to provide oxygen to those who comply with its rule but deny it to those it sees as enemies. The very breath of life is being turned into a tool of war.

COVID-19 on the rise

Such acts of barbarism come at a time when COVID-19 cases are steeply on the rise in Myanmar, with its spread exacerbated by the conflict and the collapse of health systems. While the junta has tried to accuse protesters of deliberately spreading the virus, it should be clear that it is the one culpable: only around three per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, testing is mostly unavailable and the many people crowded into detention centres face heightened infection risk and lack of access to treatment.

The medical workers who should be empowered and recognised are instead being hunted by the junta, while trying to continue to offer help in shadowy underground networks. Arrest warrants have reportedly been issued for 400 doctors and 180 nurses, with their faces displayed on ‘wanted’ posters. Military personnel are even reported to be posing as sick people to entrap and arrest medical workers. At least 157 health workers are reported to have been arrested since the coup began, with at least 252 attacks on health workers and facilities, as the government seeks to break the power of health unions and medical networks.

Despite the incredible pressure of repression, small-scale protests continue to be mounted. While large gatherings are now too dangerous, recent symbolic acts of resistance have included the staging of mock funerals on the birthday of the junta’s leader, smoke bomb protests on the anniversary of 1962 student uprisings and a horn-blowing protest on the day that commemorates the killing of leaders of the independence movement. Economic boycotts and strikes continue. Alongside these protest efforts, groups are working to document the atrocities perpetrated by the junta. People are using their phones to help collect evidence that one day could be used to hold the military to account for its many abuses.

International action needed

The international community should be clear that whether people die in a military attack or because of lack of access to healthcare, these deaths are no accident: they result from a government strategy intended to force a population that wants democracy into submission or die resisting. Attacks on medical workers and facilities are direct contraventions of the Geneva Conventions. On this score and many others, Myanmar’s military leaders should be facing charges of crimes against humanity. The international community needs to step up.

Several states and the European Union have recently extended their sanctions, targeting the deep economic interests of the military, and in June a rare United Nations Assembly resolution condemned the coup and called on member states to prevent the flow of arms to Myanmar. But the resolution failed to call for an arms embargo, bearing the hallmarks of negotiation with Myanmar’s neighbouring states. Their regional organisation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has said and done little, reflecting the anti-democratic positions of members such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam; an ASEAN delegation that met with junta leaders in June predictably amounted to nothing. The UN Security Council has also looked the other way.

Myanmar is now offering a test case, for ASEAN, the UN and the international order as a whole of the willingness to act and protect lives, not least of those trying to save the lives of others. There should be no international accommodation of what should be a pariah state. Arms supplies should cease, economic sanctions should increase and crimes against humanity proceedings should commence. This is the least Myanmar’s brave health workers deserve.