Regime threatens CDM health workers, demanding they return to work

By DMG 13 Dec 2021

DMG Newsroom
13 December 2021, Sittwe 

Healthcare workers who have participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) will be fined K5 million or K10 million if they do not return to work and will be prosecuted under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code if they support the National Unity Government (NUG), according to an order issued by the junta-controlled Ministry of Health. 

CDM health workers were forcibly evicted from government facilities on the orders of the Ministry of Health and health workers are facing many difficulties, a person who is helping the CDMers told DMG. 

“The health workers were told that they would be fired if they did not return to work. … those who have joined the CDM are having a hard time finding a way out of the crisis,” he added. 

In addition, CDM students from nursing and midwifery schools are being forced to return to school, and some final-year students are being offered degrees and are planning to work in hospitals, according to a final-year CDM student. 

“The health workers who were dismissed for joining the CDM are being replaced by students attending the nursing school,” she said. 

CDM nurses said the licences of CDM nurses were confiscated by the junta-controlled Myanmar Nursing and Midwifery Council (MNMC) and have not been returned. 

Among the ranks of the civil service participating in the CDM, educational employees and healthcare workers make up the largest cohorts. More than 100,000 healthcare workers have joined the CDM, according to the Ministry of Health of the National Unity Government.