In Rakhine State, travel restrictions that kill

For the past seven years, Khin Hla* has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition worsened by her diabetes and heart disease. But in recent months, the 33-year-old tailor’s health problems have been further complicated by where she lives—in a village on Rakhine State’s Ramree Island. Due to the ongoing conflict in the state and travel restrictions imposed by Myanmar’s military junta, she was long prevented from making the 17-mile trip from her village to Kyaukphyu, the largest town on the island, to get the medical attention she needed. Even as the symptoms of her poor health, which included severe headaches and low blood pressure, grew steadily worse, leaving the village remained an impossibility. “I took some medicine from a local clinic, just to ease the pain, but my blood pressure kept deteriorating,” she told Myanmar Now. Eventually, she began to lose the sight in her right eye. But even then, she didn’t dare to make a move, she said. “There was a lot of shooting and bombing breaking out at that time, so I was afraid to travel to the town, even though I was losing my vision.” After weeks of waiting, she and her husband finally got permission from the Kyaukphyu District Office to make the risky journey to Kyaukphyu, only to learn that they were too late. “I was told that the veins in my eye had burst. That’s why I can’t see anything with that eye now,” she said. Her only hope now is to go to Yangon for more advanced treatment. But to do that, she needs to get travel permits from local township officials, as well as from the commanding officer of military forces stationed in the town. It’s a long, exhausting process that comes with no guarantee of success. In many cases, according to residents, requests to leave the state, even for medical emergencies, are often refused unless the relevant authorities receive a “gift” of around 100,000 kyat or a bottle of high-quality liquor. ‘Depressed and frustrated’ Hnin, a 24-year old woman suffering from goitre, went through a similar ordeal to get to Kyaukphyu, which is just 20 miles north of her village. She applied repeatedly for permission to go to the town, providing all of the required documents—a letter of recommendation from her village administrator, her national identity card, her household registration, and her medical records from Yangon, where she had previously received treatment. After many failed attempts, she finally reached Kyaukphyu in late May. But once there, she soon learned that she would have to return to Yangon to get properly treated. This was bad news, because she was already five months late for an appointment in Yangon. Constrained not only by travel restrictions, but also by her finances, she had hoped that the doctors in Kyaukphyu could help her. “I don’t know what’s going on with my disease,” she said. “My neck keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it’s quite painful.” The entrance to Kyaukphyu General Hospital (Supplied) But when she looked into the possibility of making the trip to Myanmar’s largest city, she discovered that it was going to be even more expensive than she anticipated. “I was told by someone that I would have to pay 100,000 kyat to get permission to travel to Yangon,” she told Myanmar Now. “I am depressed and frustrated that I cannot get the treatment because they won’t allow me to travel,” she added. Her frustration is shared by those seeking to provide patients with the medications that they need, who must deal with the junta’s strict controls over the transport of medical supplies to Kyaukphyu. According to one local pharmacist, buying medicine from Yangon is now “illegal.” “When I submitted a request on May 6 for permission [to get some kinds of medication], they told me it was suspended until further notice,” she said. Even first-aid kits are almost contraband now, she said, recalling how she recently went to the township general administration office to pick up some that had been delivered there. “I left with the kits, but before I could even get back to my home, they called and told me I would have to pay extra for them,” she said. “So I had to go back and hand over 50,000 kyat to an official.” Fatal delays For one young woman who suffered complications from an abortion, the travel restrictions proved fatal. According to a friend of the woman’s family who visited her in the hospital in Kyaukphyu in April, doctors advised the 20-year-old patient to seek treatment in Yangon. “She waited for weeks to get permission to travel to Yangon, but in the end she died while waiting,” said the family friend. As the Arakan Army, which already controls nine of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, continues its push to capture Kyaukphyu and other key towns, the military is unlikely to loosen its grip over roads, airports and any other infrastructure still in its hands. This includes its hold over the internet and mobile phone connections, which have been all but completely severed in many areas, making it impossible to get a full sense of the impact of the relentless airstrikes and shelling carried out by the regime. Meanwhile, many who are not yet in the direct line of fire are also losing their lives, albeit more slowly and quietly. For Khin Hla, whose own fate remains far from certain, reports of others who have died of treatable illnesses due to the junta’s determination to cling to power at all costs only deepens her anxiety about her condition. “I know of many people who have died in their villages due to being denied access to town for medical treatment,” she said. “I am worried and stressed that I won’t be able to travel to Yangon. I just wish they would lift the travel restrictions for the people,” she added. *Names in this story have been changed for security reasons.

In Rakhine State, travel restrictions that kill

As conflict rages on in the state, many are dying of treatable health conditions due to the regime’s bid for complete control of residents’ movements

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