On 22 March 2010, a 35 year-old female villager from Ko Lu village in Kler Lwee Htoo took her 5 month-old and 5 year-old sons to visit their grandfather in Ler Taw Lu village. On her way back, at 4pm, the woman passed through Ko Ta village where she came across 100 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 369 of the Burma Army. Scared, she tried to run away but the soldiers opened fire with MA1, MA2 and MA3 automatic assault rifles.
The woman’s 5 year-old son was shot in the head and died immediately. The 5 month-old boy was shot in the right thigh and seriously wounded. The mother, who had been shot in the abdomen, walked to Ko Ta village, 40 minutes away, to seek help from the local Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) medic. The medic bound the wounds of the woman and her son so that they could be carried to Ler Taw Lu village by the villagers as they fled from the Burma Army. As the villagers fled, the SPDC soldiers burnt down Ko Ta village and laid landmines in the fields and in the paths used by people going to tend their crops.
In Ler Taw Lu, a second Back Pack Health Worker Team medic worked with the medic from Ko Ta to provide treatment to the injured mother and her child. The woman’s injury was cleaned and dressed, and she was given medication to help her recovery. The baby’s wounds were also cleaned and dressed and he was given ampicilline and getamycine, as well as being put on a metronidazone intravenous drip. Despite their best efforts, however, the medics were unable to save the woman’s younger son. The boy’s injury was too severe and he was too young to survive; he died at 10pm on the same day. The mother was kept in Ler Taw Lu and cared for by Back Pack Health Worker Team medics for two weeks before being referred to Htee Moo Hta Clinic, one day’s walk away. Here, she was cared for by medics of the KDHW Mobile Health Clinic until she was fully recovered and able to return to her home three weeks later.
Communities in eastern Burma endure daily suffering and human rights abuses at the hands of soldiers of the Burma Army and their allies. Children are being robbed of their innocence and all too often, as in this case, of their young lives. Medics of the Back Pack Health Worker Team have been working for a decade now in eastern Burma to provide health services and education to community members. However, without an end to these systematic human rights abuses there can be guarantee that innocent lives will be safe.