The author of this article deserves credit for focusing on suffering instead of numbers.
[him] moderator
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The Tatmadaw’s Hidden Enemy—HIV/AIDS
Min Lwin
Irrawaddy
20 December 2007
Tun Maung, a 36-year-old sergeant with the Burmese Tatmadaw’s No 391
Light Infantry Battalion, in Hmwe Be, on the outskirts of Rangoon,
hobbles through the gates of the base, leaning on a bamboo stick. He’s
a sick man—infected, like many other Burmese soldiers, with the HIV
virus.
Treatment at a military hospital hasn’t helped him much, and now he’s
hoping to find relief in a private clinic.
The nature of a Burmese army soldier’s job exposes him to a heightened
risk of contracting HIV/AIDS from contaminated blood and poorly
disinfected needles and other surgical equipment.
The need for blood in field hospitals is sometimes so urgent that
supplies aren’t properly checked, according to one medical assistant.
Officially, the Burmese armed forces have no HIV/AIDS patients. An army
medical told The Irrawaddy: “Our tetchuk (chief-of-staff) doesn’t
recognize the existence of the virus among his men. So we don’t have
HIV/AIDS patients, and we don’t get permission to treat them.”
The husband of Aye Win, Cpl Khin Aung Than, died of AIDS six month ago,
after serving in the Tatmadaw for 20 years.
“I don’t know how he came to be infected,” she said. “He suffered leg
injuries five years ago in Karen State, though.
“When he was dying with AIDS, I went to the battalion health unit to
seek medical treatment for him. But treatment was refused by a medical
assistant.”
One source close to the directorate of medical services said more than
80 patients had died from HIV/AIDS at a 1,000-bed military hospital in
Naypyidaw.
Yet, in a speech in Naypyidaw on December 2—World AIDS Day—the chairman
of the National Health Committee, Lt-Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo,
insisted that everything was being done to assist HIV/AIDS patients and
their families.
Despite the general’s assurances, HIV/AIDS patients who are too ill to
continue serving in the armed forces are denied a pension if they have
served less than 10 years. Early retirement through ill health is
resisted by the army command.
Contributing to the problem is the lack of education within the armed
forces about the risks of contracting HIV/AIDS. “Most soldiers don’t
know how the HIV virus is contracted,” said the son of a
sergeant-major. HIV/AIDS sufferers are ignored by their comrades, he
said.
Wives of underpaid soldiers are known to boost meager family incomes by
resorting to prostitution, adding to the risk of the HIV virus
penetrating army ranks.
Representatives of international organizations working in Burma say
army commanders resist any attempt to offer awareness programs to the
troops. Statistics of HIV/AIDS patients within the armed forces are
unavailable.
Assistance for bereaved families is non-existent. Aye Win says she was
ignored by the army command after the death of her husband. She weeps
as she says: “They don’t want me and the children to remain on the
base. We’ll have to return to my family home, but I don’t know how
we’ll survive. I have no job.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9708
