Taunggyi: Among the displaced, part of the civil disobedience movement

Nurses and university lecturers abandoned everything to protest against the Burmese junta. As the violence escalated, they took refuge in other cities. Some share their stories with AsiaNews, which supports the communities of internally displaced people through the PIME Foundation's donation campaign.

Taunggyi (AsiaNews) - Among the displaced people in Myanmar who have been taken in by Catholic structures, there are often teachers or doctors who, immediately after the Burmese military junta's coup d'état of February 1, 2021, joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and for this reason were persecuted in the initial phase of what would later become an open war. These are people who gave up their jobs in protest and put their careers aside to defend the ideals and democratic progress made by Myanmar over the past 10 years. 

Now the Tatmadaw (the Burmese army) and ethnic militias are fighting all over the country, even in Mandalay and Sagaing, for example, regions with a Buddhist and Burmese majority where other ethnic groups were left on the sidelines.

After the bombing of Loikaw at the end of December, the number of displaced people rose to over 400,000. Some fled to India and Thailand, but most moved within the country, seeking refuge in religious structures.

In one of these, a 35- and 36-year-old couple, both nurses, arrived with a six-year-old child. She is of Shan ethnicity, he is a Burmese (Bamar). But the ethnic element in today's war is a fact that has lost its importance compared to the past, when all the minority ethnic groups shielded themselves against the Burmese majority. The new generations, on the contrary, are simply calling for the return of a civilian and democratic government.

If the war had not broken out, the two nurses would have risen professionally: she was head of department and in charge of training new recruits; he was the first nurse in Myanmar to be trained in swabbing, when the Covid-19 pandemic had just broken out and the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to devise a tracking system, which was never implemented because of the conflict. 

The decision to leave their jobs was a family choice: they both left the government hospital where they worked to return to her village, where they tried to pursue other careers. Now only people loyal to the generals work in Burmese hospitals, or are forced to return after suffering harassment and intimidation of various kinds. It is estimated that after the coup, 70% of health personnel refused to collaborate with the junta.

 The same thing happened in the universities, where most of the professors are women and they immediately joined the CoM. After the coup, however, most of them did not take to the streets with the students for fear of reprisals, but stayed at home. When the military found them, they broke down the door, raped them and their daughters and threatened them with torture if they did not return to the university.

One woman, a 74-year-old Muslim professor, was forced to return to teach in Yangon. Fatigued and hampered by a limp after following cancer, she reluctantly resumed her job because she could no longer stand up to the generals on her own. 

Another teacher from Yangon, in her 50s, fled to Taunggyi with her daughter. After arriving in a predominantly male host community, the girl was initially unable to interact and integrate with the rest of the residents. Before she escaped, she had been raped by soldiers and was still stunned.

Faced with this situation, the PIME Foundation has decided to open the S145 Emergency Myanmar Fund, to support the initiatives of local Churches, many of which were founded by PIME missionaries before the expulsion of foreign religious in 1966.

The aim of the campaign is to provide immediate help to thousands of people by supporting the network of shelters being set up by the dioceses of Taungoo and Taunggyi. Many local religious groups have responded to this emergency and are doing so by showing the most beautiful face of Myanmar: that of a people who, despite the many sufferings that have marked its history, choose the path of solidarity. It is to them that we will send aid, starting with people's basic needs: a roof, food, a school for the youngest children, who have not been attending for two years now - between the pandemic and the war.

You can donate to the "S145 - Myanmar Emergency":

Online at this link by choosing among the options the project "S145 - Myanmar Emergency".
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Cash or cheque to the Pime Centre in Milan, via Monte Rosa 81, from Monday to Friday (9.00-12.30 and 13.30-17.30).