ALTSEAN-BURMA

Burma's experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has been greatly hobbled by decades of underinvestment in the public health system by successive military governments.

Compounding the issue is the Tatmadaw's ongoing refusal to delegate and relinquish control of a public health crisis to civilian government bodies.

An enormous "second wave" of COVID-19 cases threatens to overrun Burma's critically underfunded and unprioritized public health system, while the Tatmadaw systematically demolishes ethnic people's attempts to fight the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile in Rakhine State, Burma's government has at the eight month mark still failed to take effective action in implementing the ICJ's Provisional Measures, which will have increase vulnerability to pandemics and conflict for all minority people in the country.

Between 23 January and 23 November 2020, there were at least 880 armed clashes in civilian areas or direct attacks on civilians by armed actors in Burma. These took place in 11 out of 14 of Burma's States and Regions including the Capital Territory and resulted in over 200 deaths and 600 people wounded.

On the anniversary of the 8888 uprising, it is important to note that 617 attacks targeting or failing to protect civilians occurred in Jan - Jun 2020 compared to only 166 recorded in the same period of 2011.

With the close for submissions to the latest round of the Burma/Myanmar Universal Periodic Review (UPR), key recommendations from previous cycles remain unimplemented and civilians across the country remain at severe risk of armed violence and business-linked rights abuses.

Burma's Government and military claim that they are taking effective measures to implement the Provisional Measures ordered by the International Court of Justice.

However, at Burma's first four-month report evidence of systematic, long-term change is very difficult to see. Rohingya people are still subjected to an Apartheid existence in IDP prison camps in Rakhine, and the Tatmadaw continues to wage war against its own people in Burma's West, North and East.