“After a year and a half since the coup d’état, how do we regain our mental strength? We are only human. There are times when we feel depressed because we live far away from home and because we live a life that is not our life in reality. There are times when we want to give up.”
Her name is Linn NZ. It’s a kind of strange name to call. She shares the hardships with the IDPs in the Karenni region. Although she is only 24 years old, she is immersed in life somewhere in the jungle of the Karenni region. She has a future with her personal ego, but during the revolution, she pushes her ego to the farthest and forgets about her future for a while. Before the seizure of power, young people in Myanmar had dreams of their own. When Min Aung Hlaing seized power, everything was covered with disappointment.
“I am one of the founders of HOPE-The Humanitarian Organization. The purpose of the group is to share with them the hardships and sufferings of the Karenni IDPs. As long as we can meet their needs and expectations, we take help from the city and people from abroad and bridge the gap between the IDPs.”
When talking about her current activities in the Karenni region, she said that the HOPE group has opened a half-paid shop. In this time of crisis in the country, the price of goods has become the most important thing. Their team started looking for a way to solve these problems.
“Now the prices of goods have risen exponentially. In the past, you could buy a bottle of thirty tical cooking oil for eight hundred kyats, but now you have to buy that bottle for four thousand five hundred kyats. This is just an example. Because of the difficulties caused by the extremely high commodity prices, it also causes difficulties for organizations like us that help and takes care of IDPs.”
That’s why Dr Linn NZ’s group was able to go to the IDP camps at least once every two weeks to provide food, but now the flow of donations is low, and on the other hand, when the prices of goods are so high, they can no longer do things like helping every two weeks.
“We can’t go any further. It became difficult for us to even rotate. Because if we provide food once, we will fill up at least a week’s worth of food. Because if they don’t get at least a week’s worth of food, it can’t be convenient for those IDPs. When commodity prices soared and money flows dwindled, it became difficult to meet their needs in time. We have to think of various ways to solve these. As we thought about it, the answer came to us, ‘It is the half-paid shop’.”
Dr Linn NZ, a female doctor who speaks with “Kyun Taw = I ” (Male Pronoun in Burmese, Kyun Taw) and “Kyun Taw” when speaking, also politely says “Naw” instead of “Nor” when ending the sentence.
“We intend to open this half-paid shop in every IDP camp in the Karenni region as far as we can reach, but at the moment we have insufficient funds, so we can do the nearest one to us. It’s a really difficult place where we always provide food, and we started opening a half-payment shop in that place far from the main road,” she informed.
Dr Linn NZ has opened such a half-payment shop and is helping those IDPs. On the other hand, as a doctor, along with her senior doctors, she is still providing medical treatment to the people of the Karenni region. On the ground, they provide health care to IDPs. They are also trying as much as they can to educate people about health, and in such a situation, there is also a challenge. This challenge is the language barrier.
It is very difficult in the places where she has to talk and connect because there are locals who don’t speak Burmese, in addition to medical treatment, she said that she was quite anxious about other matters.
“Five or six months ago, it was a place where there were people who fled the war. They travelled to that place for a long time and gave medical treatment. In that area, the whole village has only one toilet. There is only one toilet in the entire village. Their health awareness is also very low. Another thing is language. They don’t speak Burmese. They only speak their ethnic language. The gap between their ethnic language and ours even after more than a year, it is still difficult to communicate with the locals, she said.
But there are some local nurses, so they have to translate as much as they understand for me. She also told her experiences that there are differences in the dialect language. Therefore, even after more than a year, it is still difficult to communicate with the locals, she said. Their medical team came to the Karenni region while doing the anti-coup revolution and had to face other difficulties besides language. This is the gap between local people’s religious beliefs and health knowledge.
“Not everywhere, but what you see in many of them is traditional belief and religion. For example, in the village we went to that I mentioned earlier, for example, we want to provide family planning education to women who fled the war. They had to run away from the war, they have no jobs, and there is no fixed place to live anymore. So, we do family planning education because it is not convenient for a woman with children or with a pregnant belly. But some villages do not accept that. For them, a child is a gift from God. They say that there is no way they can accept contraception. There are some who don’t accept bitterly,” she said.
Despite all the difficulties, while Dr Linn NZ’s team are trying to find a solution and going through it, sometimes they share their sorrows, joys and passions together with the locals.
“I am helping mothers and children on the ground. I have memories of them. There was a mother fleeing war. She was pregnant. His man is in the Defense Forces. Before the baby was born, her husband died. She was alone with her pregnancy. And there was another woman, the child was born only a month old. In the People’s Defense Force, her husband fell. She was left alone with a month-old baby. There are many such mothers and women here. Their emotional pain is a lot,” she said sadly.
In addition to this, children in the Karenni region are disproportionately avoiding war compared with their age and are again suffering from the impacts and hardships of the environment. “Children are very fragile generally. It’s very well shaped and if anything, it’s an easy age to remember. The aircraft came. The bombs dropped. The big weapons are thundering. Because they had to flee from the war with those kinds of sounds, if they encounter very loud sounds, the children get scared and start crying and had a fit of fear,” said the doctor, sharing her experience.
Two months ago, there was an incident where a child’s grandmother was hit in the leg when a heavy weapon fell on a place where they were fleeing from the war. The kid who was playing next to his grandmother was not seriously harmed, but the pieces of bombs went right after him.
“When I gave the medicine or gave the injection, the child did not let anyone come near him. He just stayed with his grandmother, no one could come close to him. He can’t be called. We tried very hard to get him on medication. For the next two days, he didn’t let anyone near him. If the voice is too noisy, he can’t get it at all. He cried a lot. This is the children’s emotional feelings,” said the doctor. She said that even after the revolution is over, these conditions will remain as wounds in the children’s minds, and they will feel terrible for the emotional damage.”, she said.
She said that even after the revolution is over, these conditions will remain as wounds in the children’s minds, and she feels sorry for their emotional damage.
“Another sad thing is that little children play whatever they do because three or four-year-old children play shooting games. They play games like when one of them shoots a gun, the other falls, and when a plane drops a bomb, they crouch in a bomb shelter. Normally, this is just children playing, but this is not good for them in any way. For those who see it, it is obvious how much children are attached to their minds,” she said.
On the other hand, the mothers and children in Karenni IDP camps are not getting good nutrition and are having a hard time. Due to these difficulties, when giving birth to a child, it is known that there are many symptoms of nutritional deficiency, such as babies who are born underweight and those who are already born, do not get nutrition.
“The previous day, I went to an IDP camp. The child is eating. What he was eating, he’s having rice and boiled chayote. That’s why I said to his mom, “If you have the chayote, please fry it up.” The mother replied that, “there was no oil. There is no onion. So, I can’t fry it up. So, I have to feed my kid with rice and boiled chayote.” It is no way to get nutrition. Another problem is that children are not vaccinated. It’s been more than 2 years since the military coup, and the children are missing out on vaccinations. Because they were not injected, the aftermath for the children is unimaginable. The military coup took a toll on mothers and children. Even if the revolutionary wins, the effect will be very large,” she explained.
Women who fled the war as well as female soldiers face difficulties every day. There is no cleanliness in IDP camps and military camps where female soldiers live, so the health risk is a problem again. Hospitals are far away, so only her team can try to treat them as much as possible.
“Water is scarce here. Because it is arid, water cannot be used freely. Another thing is that women get urinary tract infections because the water they use is not clean. Most of the women who come to my clinic come with symptoms of urinary tract infection. Another thing is generational spread. Now, if you’ve gone to the IDP camps, it’s with their pregnancy and children of all ages. They don’t know family planning methods. Even if they know, they have some inconveniences to using it. What are the inconvenient things to use? It is not easy to come to the hospital. In some places, there are IDP camps near hospitals. Some places are far from hospitals. If they come to a place where there are hospitals far away, if they come by motorbike, it costs a lot of fuel. With those costs, those who do not have access to hospitals have to rely on mobile medical groups,” she said.
For those medical teams who are mobile, it is not easy to get to each one quickly because there are many military evacuation camps. Even if they know that they need to use assistive devices for family planning, there are situations where they can’t. However, her team are trying to help as much as they can.
“Every time I go to the IDP camps, I call married women and talk to them. I provide knowledge about family planning. If you are using family planning, please continue to use it correctly. You haven’t used it at all yet; you can choose what you want to use, what we can use and what we can get. The ‘Hope’ is working hard to share and educate about family planning,” she informed.
Currently, the coup period has passed a year and a half, and despite being in a dangerous and troubled place, Dr Linn NZ said that she is overcoming the emotional ups and downs as best she can. Because of getting rid of the root of the military dictatorship is the main thing, I was going through this fatigue to overcome Because the root of the military dictatorship is the main thing, I was going through this fatigue to overcome carelessly.
“When the coup d’état has been over a year and a half ago, how do we regain our strength? We are human too. There are times when we feel depressed because we live far away from home and because we live a life that is not our true life. There are times when you want to give up. Every time that happens, I look at the families who have fled the war and those who are facing hardships. They were affected by the war tens of years ago, they still can’t get over it. Even now, they’re still suffering from them,” explaining how she is satisfied with her current situation.
“If we have to talk about memories, here we have shops selling traditional food such as rice noodles opened by the IDPs. When I went to eat at that shop, I talked to that Ah Moe (which means ‘Mother’ in Kayin). What I’m talking about was her house, which was left behind during the war. At that time, all of a sudden, bullets started falling on her house. She didn’t have time to pick up any items and ran away after picking up nearby items. She still can’t look back at that house. Do you even have a house now? I asked her, Ah Moe. Any Depression? Do you want to go home? Do you want to stop this kind of war now? When I asked her, she replied that she wanted to go home. But why don’t they get discouraged because they have been feeling this great for years and years? Now she has a grandson. He’s three years now. Even if it’s her grandson’s turn, she doesn’t want to feel this anymore. This must be rooted out. If I gave this house, nothing will happen. The doctor recalled that if the military coup is over and Ah Moe has reached a position she hopes for, then all these things can be tightened up and she can try again.
As Ah Moe, she feels sorry for the children like her grandchildren ages who gave up their lives and fought. Because of this, depression is far away from them.
“That word is still stuck with me. Indeed, even those whose homes, their children and their lives invested are still strong, why mustn’t we have the strength to continue? If I’m depressed, I always hear her words. I gather strength myself by watching the suffering IDPs who are by my side,” said the doctor, expressing her feelings.
During the coup, the involvement of women in the revolution to overthrow the military dictatorship was no less than that of men. The knowledge that women are weak over the generations has changed a lot these days. The participation of women from all over the place, such as those who are fighting with armed forces on the frontline battlefield and those who are providing medical treatment on the frontline battlefield, is encouraging.
“We women are brave. We are decisive. If anything, people say that because they are the owners of the swinging hand. Women are weak. If it’s a woman, it’s weak. That’s right. We don’t have hard power. But we have soft power. If we focus on something, we did our minds on it. It’s every woman and every mother. Now, in this revolution, it is a place where I am. There are many young women in the revolution. If you look at them, they are absolutely youthful, delicate and beautiful. But they are armed and marching forward. There are some nurses. What are they doing? They go to the frontline with a gun. Without fear, the medicine bag is being taken, and they treated people on the frontline. There are so many brave women,” the doctor continued.
Throughout the ages, ethnic groups have been armed and wanted federal freedom. After the coup, the thoughts and opinions of the people throughout Myanmar have changed significantly, but in fact, many ethnic groups have already suffered the worst effects of war in the past. Because they wanted a fair and free life, the ethnic people took the path of armed forces and swore allegiance to what they believed in.
“In order to achieve great federalism, the ethnic groups are armed. We were also able to sympathize with what the ethnicities felt when the spring revolution happened. Since ancient times, the hills and the mainland have been very segregated. The people of the mainland are privileged. The people on the hill region are very oppressed. Their lives and their futures are so oppressed. They are very slow to progress. They have been hit hard by the military,” said the doctor.
The reason why she is able to speak like this is that the ethnic people in the remote areas where she was visiting are very afraid of those who come from the mainland.
“They are still afraid of people from the mainland. As for the locals, they are called Kathan (spelling may vary) who come from the mainland. Kathan is the name of the military. Kathan is Burmese. In the past, only the military came to them. Those military are also bad for them. Those are burning, destroying and looking for problems. They are very afraid of the military. They called Military Burmese, they did the Burmese are Kathan. That’s why the military is Kathan, Kathan is the military. They set only it equally. Even now, in some villages, if you say you are Burmese, they feel upset and dejected,” said the doctor, sharing her experiences.
It is because of such situations that when their team go to a place to help, they have to explain to the satisfaction of the locals and solve the difficulties, she said.
“What we have to do is talk a little bit of politics with a local to get them. We can tell you that we are here to help. There are situations like that. This is the impact of the military on these ethnic groups. This is how the ethnic groups see the military,” she continued.
At the age of 24, Dr Linn NZ (Linn NZ) gained sympathy due to her change in political tide. It can also be said that a terrorist military coup is a good thing out of bad things. I had a great understanding of the ethnic groups, and I started to feel pain when I thought about the hardships that the ethnic group had suffered in the past.
“All the current problems are caused by a group of selfish military dictators. Because of their mentality that whoever dies, they’re fine, we are having problems because of this dictatorial mentality,” said the doctor.
Because of this, the doctor informs us that she will bear the responsibility of fighting she could do for the spring revolution until the end. She also believes that her convictions will be more or less the same as other people.
“This system will be eradicated in our time. The future generations, the future children, must have a real future and human rights for them. We are young people who were born in the dark ages and grew up in the dark ages. Even so, we’re catching it up. We were still in the transition period. As a young person who has caught up with two ages, there is no reason for us to accept a military coup. Our own lives, our own rights, and our futures are being violated piece by piece. We have no reason to accept that. For this reason, my final conviction is that in our time, military dictatorship must be eradicated completely and permanently. The roots must be cut off,” she said forcefully.
Currently, the terrorist SAC has seized power, it has been more than 1 and a half years, almost 2 years. In this situation, all the people in Myanmar have reached the most critical situation due to the additional problems of the coup. In these, the CDM staff’s ability to stand is also getting worse and worse.
“There are many CDMs in the city that is struggling. I also saw it in the news. That a CDM has committed suicide. When we read that, we were really sad. We have to admit that we are not fulfilling our responsibility. We shouted at the protest. ‘Stay in the comfort of your home.’ We shouted that they should only join CDM. But we have many needs to fill it. But on the other hand, we know that CDMers are not joining CDM just because we say so. Because they themselves are people with a sense that distinguishes between justice and injustice, that’s why they all did CDM. I know that there are many problems facing difficulties. I thank them very much. Please continue to pull yourself together,” she said with encouraging words.
The role of CDMs in the downfall of the military dictatorship became quite important. The first CDMs were exemplary, and the strength of the CDMs, like other sectors in the Spring Revolution, had a good record, to begin with, and the strength has also increased. But it must be said that it became difficult for them to stand up as the years went by.
“I’m telling people not to throw away the CDMs. We understand that there are many sectors to support. I know there are many such sectors but don’t forget CDMs. What I have been insisting on until now is that CDMs are an important factor. Compare it with the events of 1988. The role of our CDM in the spring revolution was how much it went,” said the doctor.
However, Dr Linn NZ will continue to be one with the suffering people in the Karenni region. The spring revolution will continue at an even faster pace, and the weakening of the terrorist war council has become evident, so it can only be said that it will not be long before the military dictatorship would be eradicated. Therefore, she will continue to help the IDPs on the ground. Then, as sympathy for the lives of the ethnic groups, as well as a debt that she can understand their sufferings, she will continue to carry out the duties that no one gave her until the victory of the Spring Revolution. The doctor also said this.
“It is certain that the Spring Revolution will continue at this rate. I absolutely believe that the military dictatorship will be eradicated in our time. Have strength for that too. The revolution has been over a year and a half. People are suffering from all kinds of problems. I’m really grateful to all the people who have endured the pain and participated so far. As a person who is on the ground, I see that if the people in the cities are not involved, we will not be able to move and stand in these situations. Thank you for participating in these difficulties. Please, continue to pull yourselves together,” she said.