Junta-controlled media touts medical aid provided by Myanmar Navy vessels

Mizzima

Myanmar’s junta is trumpeting a series of medical missions carried out by its seagoing and riverine hospital ships across the Ayeyarwady Region. The operations are portrayed as humanitarian outreach even as the junta faces mounting accusations of human rights abuses nationwide.

Over the past week, junta-controlled media has published near-daily reports detailing the movements of Myanmar Navy hospital vessels and the activities of their medical teams. The vessels include the seagoing ship Thanlwin and riverine craft Shwe Puzon and Saku.

The vessels were reported as travelling between villages in Ngaputaw, Wakema, Myaungmya, Labutta and Ngayokkaung townships. Junta media listed hundreds of patients treated at each stop, often at monasteries, jetties or township health departments.

In Ngaputaw, for example, 533 people received care according to one account of the Thanlwin’s visit. In nearby Myaungmya, a naval medical team reportedly treated 391 residents. And a separate mission in Ngaputaw days later reported 352 patients receiving care.

The types of care offered ranged from general medicine to eye and orthopaedic surgery, examination of paediatric and gynaecology patients, dental treatment, and the conduct of laboratory tests, x-rays and ultrasound scans.

Junta-controlled media described warm welcomes from village officials and schoolchildren as the ships moved through additional townships in the Ayeyarwady Delta region.