Page 99 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2017

Humanitarian Struggle in Burma’s Conflict Zones

Moe Gyo

ABSTRACT
The Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT), a commu- and preventative primary health care to ethnic people in ar-
nity-based health organization, provides primary health care eas in Burma under the control of the EAOs. Moreover, the
to ethnic people in conflict, remote, and internally displaced people of the BPHWT, either themselves, their families, and/or
areas, in Burma (aka Myanmar), controlled by ethnic armed their villages, have been subject to the adverse consequences
organizations fighting against the Burma government. Its of actions by the Burma military. Humanitarian struggle is
services include both curative and preventative health care their way to fight back. This “humanitarian struggle” by the
through a network of 1,425 health personnel including com- BPHWT combines the delivery of health care with a political
munity health workers and village-embedded traditional birth overlay.
attendants and village health workers. The BPHWT organiza-
tional and program model may prove useful to Special Opera-
tions medical actions in support of insurgent movements and Burma (aka Myanmar).
conversely with a host nation’s counterinsurgency strategies,
which include the extension of its health services into areas
that may be remote and/or inhabited by indigenous people and
have insurgency potential. In the former respect, special at-
tention is directed toward “humanitarian struggle” that uses
health care as a weapon against the counterinsurgency strate-
gies of a country’s oppressive military.

Keywords: Back Pack Health Worker Team; Burma; health
care; humanitarianism

Introduction
The Burma* military uses a four-cuts counterinsurgency strat-
egy to “cut” the funds, supplies, recruits, and information pro-
vided to ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) by local ethnic
populations. Supplementing this strategy, the Burma military
has unofficially tasked local military units to supplement their
meager supplies by “living off the land.” This is the establish-
ment of a parasitic relationship whereas these units “live off”
local ethnic villagers through forced labor and portering and
the uncompensated taking of food, animals, land, and money.
The Burma military tries to force ethnic people to focus on
their daily survival rather than supporting an insurgency. The
result is that ethnic people become malnourished, sick, in- Political Context
jured, and mentally distressed.
After its independence in 1948, armed conflicts began in Burma
For almost 20 years, the BPHWT has been engaged in a hu- between the dominant Burman ethnic group from central
manitarian struggle against such Burma military counterinsur- Burma and the non-Burman ethnic groups from the peripheral
gency strategies that result in sickness, injuries, and deaths. hill and delta areas. These conflicts have been continuous since
It accomplished this through the provision of both curative then through successive civilian, military, and quasi-military

Correspondence to myanmar2009@yahoo.com
Mr Gyo has worked for more than 7 years in a pro bono nonmedical organizational support role with the Back Pack Health Worker Team. He
is also a political consultant to various Burma ethnic organizations along the Thai–Burma border and writer in respect to political—military
issues involving Burma.
*The term “Burma” is used instead of “Myanmar” as the ethnic armed and political organizations as well as Burma democracy activists refuse
to recognize the name change instituted by the State Law and Order Restoration Council, Burma’s ruling junta, in 1989. The U.S. government
also chooses to refer to the country as “Burma.” The term “Burma” is also used as an adjective to modify “government” and “military” instead
of “Burmese” since the non-Burman ethnic people consider the adjective “Burmese” to refer to the Burman ethnic group. The Burma military
is presented negatively in the article due to its treatment of ethnic noncombatants, giving rise to the existence and humanitarian struggle by the
BPHWT and other ethnic organizations.

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