Health
Burma’s health system is ranked second worst in the world, next to Sierra Leone. The government spends 30-50% of its budget on the military, yet only 2.2% is spent on health. An estimated 30% of children under age 5 are moderately to severely underweight due to food insecurity, lowering their immune systems and making them susceptible to even more health problems. About 10% of children die before they reach age five, usually from diarrheal disease. Burma has a high infant mortality rate of 75 per 1000 live births. As many as one in 12 women die from pregnancy and related complications. There is a 1.3% HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, which is the second highest in all of Southeast Asia only after Thailand. An estimated 40% of people have drug-resistant or multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and over 700,000 have malaria.Health indicators for Burma are among the worst in the region, especially in Eastern Burma. The indicators are on par with other nations experiencing humanitarian disasters, including Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia at the end of the Khmer Rouge, and Darfur, Sudan. As though the government’s minimal investment in healthcare wasn’t bad enough, the SPDC has also forced Doctors Without Borders as well as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria to pull out of the country with its extreme travel restrictions. Unfortunately, the health situation will only worsen without the government’s commitment to the wellbeing of the people of Burma.
Dr Cynthia Maung’s Mae Tao Clinic
Gathering Storm 2007: Infectious Disease and Human Rights in Burma
Education
Burma used to be one of the most literate nations in the region, but as of 2002, the literacy rate was 85.3%, compared with 92.6% in Thailand. The military dictatorship is responsible for Burma’s failed education system. Other low-income Asian nations spend around three percent of GDP on education, but SPDC directs most of the country’s income to the military and spends only 0.3% of its GDP on education.In 2004, only 85.1% of Burmese children are enrolled in primary school, down from 97.8% in 1991. What’s worse is that only 34% are enrolled in secondary schools. When high schools are built, parents are expected to help finance it as well as work for the school. Because most parents cannot afford these costs, along with the poor education and the unsafe environments of villages, many Burmese students trek through the jungle to the refugee camps on the Thai border for education.
Broken Economy
Burma’s economy was once among the developing world’s richest it was called the Rice Bowl of Asia and showed more promise than its neighbors, now called the Asian Tigers. After decades of mismanagement and repression, however, Burma’s economy is in shambles. It is estimated that 90 percent of the population lives at or below the poverty line, and that Burma has the lowest GDP per capita in all of Southeast Asia. Burma’s economy is rated as among the least free in the world by the Heritage Foundation only four countries (Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea) ranked lower this year.The military controls all major sectors of the economy such as mining, logging, oil, transport, manufacturing, apparel, and power. It controls the export of many key commodities and also must approve all foreign investment. Corruption is widespread, with the military protecting crony companies and state-owned businesses. With all the income the military government generates, very little of its budget is actually spent on health and education 50 percent is spent on the military, with only three percent going to education and eight percent to health. Rampant inflation (prices of commodities increased over 50% in 2003, and 20% in 2006) makes the economic impact more intense for those at the bottom end of Burma’s huge wealth gap. While the ruling military elite live in luxury, the vast majority of Burmese live in some of the worst abject poverty, unsure of whether they will be able to feed their families tomorrow or the day after.
Political Prisoners
Before the Saffron Revolution there were over 1100 political prisoners in Burma. Today there are hundreds more. Torture, rape, and other gross acts that violate the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights are used towards these prisoners who are being punished for nothing more than using their voices.There are 36 prisons in Burma, and of them, 20 detain political prisoners. The two that are most notorious for their demoralizing tactics are Myingyan Prison and Insein Prison. The prisoners there have strict regimens and if they do not follow orders precisely, they are thoroughly beaten. Various types of torment, from being deprived of food, to being forced to crawl upon sharp pieces of brick, are used when prisoners rightfully complain to prison authorities during inspections.
While in most nations these innocent prisoners would be viewed as simply exercising their rights to assemble and express their opinions, the SPDC justifies their brutal conduct by charging the blameless with causing unrest. They are forced to endure inhumane treatment merely for acts such as attending a pro-democracy rally or writing a poem about liberty.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPP)
The Darkness We See: Report on Torture in Burma’s Prisons
The Situation of Women
Burmese women face oppression in many forms, and basic health indicators suggest that the living conditions and status of women in Burma are among the lowest in Asia (if not the absolute lowest). Burma’s nation-wide maternal mortality rate which measures deaths related to childbirth is estimated at 230 deaths per 100,000 live births, the highest in the region. The maternal mortality rate in Burma’s ethnic and conflict areas is even higher: at 1,200 deaths per 100,000 live births, this rate is among the highest in the world and compares most to the world’s humanitarian disasters. Likewise, mortality rates in these conflict zones for children under five years old are among the worst in the world comparable to Sierra Leone and Angola. Although the military dictatorship has signed on to international law guaranteeing the rights of women, they are still among the worst abusers of women’s rights in the world. Military rape is systematically used in Burma as a weapon of the military regime’s cleansing of ethnic areas. These rapes are often gang rapes, and are accompanied by torture, murder, mutilation and display of bodies to target communities. Women and girls have many fewer educational and job opportunities than men in Burma: less than one third of girls who enroll in primary school actually complete it, and many girls are trafïcked into exploitative sex work in various nations, especially Thailand.Women’s League of Burma
Courage to Resist
License to Rape
Reference: US Campaign for Burma
