Locals call for easing checks on emergency patients at Kyaukphyu security checkpoint

By DMG 21 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 December 2022, Kyaukphyu

Locals are facing difficulties as junta soldiers at a security checkpoint near Kyauktalone Pagoda in Kyaukphyu, Arakan State, are conducting lengthy examinations of emergency patients whose health and often lives are on the line.

“Patients who have to go to the hospital urgently are facing life-threatening situations due to the security forces checking for a long time,” said a resident of Kyaukphyu who did not wish to be named for security reasons.

“We accept that soldiers check travellers for security reasons. The Myanmar military should facilitate emergency situations for the health of patients. The military’s long-term and strict inspection of travellers may lead to unnecessary loss of life for patients,” the unnamed Kyaukphyu resident added.

Local residents are only allowed to pass through the Kyauktalone security checkpoint from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., except for urgent health issues. But when emergency patients pass through the security checkpoint, junta soldiers allow them only after checks that can last hours.

“I also experienced such a situation. Travellers are checked by junta soldiers for security reasons. The military should not tighten security checks on locals and travellers and seek a better way for their convenience,” said Ko Tun Soe, a resident of Ohntaw Village in Kyaukphyu Township.

The Kyauktalone security checkpoint, which is about three miles from downtown Kyaukphyu, was jointly set up by local civil society organisations and government departments in 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The township’s General Administration Department announced the dismantling of the Kyauktalone security checkpoint in March 2021 at Kyaukphyu residents’ request, as soldiers were checking the travellers’ vehicle numbers, ID cards and addresses ostensibly in relation to efforts to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.

The regime reopened the Kyauktalone security checkpoint after hostilities between the military and Arakan Army (AA) resumed in August and soldiers, police and immigration officials have been tightening security checks on locals and travellers in the months since.

An informal truce between the military and AA was observed on November 26 on humanitarian grounds, but emergency patients are still having difficulties due to the continued enforcement of tight security checks at the Kyauktalone checkpoint.

“Soldiers at the checkpoint interrogated a patient and the patient’s relatives for a long time while the emergency patient was being transported to the hospital,” said Ko Bo Bo Hein, a resident of Ohntaw Village in Kyaukphyu Township. “Soldiers don’t check anything on people they know, and emergency patients shouldn’t be checked like that.”

When DMG phoned Kyaukphyu Township administrator U Myo Min Tun regarding the military’s tight security checks on locals and travellers at the Kyauktalone checkpoint, he replied: “Please contact officials at the security checkpoint.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Arakan State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura regarding the matter.