The Medic

I just did an interview with a doctor volunteering on the front lines, a part of a team of underground doctors who are helping in any way they can. They have almost no supplies or resources, and they have to sneak into public hospitals with more serious cases. Because the doctors were at the forefront of the Civil Disobedience Movement, the military has a special hatred for them and goes out of their way to target any medical volunteers. Because of this, they now must "go rogue", and wear ordinary clothes and help people secretly. Ambulances are riddled with bullet holes, those caught helping with any medical supplies are arrested and in some cases beaten to death, and doctors and nurses have been killed outright with head and chest shots.

My grandfather (seen in the photo attached to this post) served in World War II. Because he was a pacifist, he served as a conscientious objector, meaning he refused to carry a weapon and served as a medic. He was attached to a unit that operated across enemy lines in Germany. But because he wore the medic patch, he himself was safe, even as his fellow soldiers were not, and he often had apply his training to tend to them.

In other words, the red cross insignia that protected my Jewish grandfather from Nazi gunfire is not only failing to keep Burmese medics safe, but is actually calling attention to them as targets.

The Tatmadaw is now breaking wartime standards and conventions that even the Nazis followed.

---