Myanmar Military Regime Confiscates 100 Medical Oxygen Cylinders Imported By Charities

Illustration of oxygen cylinder for COVID-19 patient. (Source: UNICEF/UNI41215/Rae)

JAKARTA - A colonel in the Myanmar military regime admitted to having confiscated 100 medical oxygen cylinders officially imported from Thailand by a Yangon charity to treat COVID-19 patients.

Colonel Myo Min Naung, the first member of the regime's Administrative Council in Karen State, ordered the confiscation of life-saving oxygen, as the cylinders were brought to Myanmar on Saturday via the Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2 in Myawaddy, a border town in Karen State, eastern Myanmar.

Citing The Irrawaddy Tuesday July 27, the colonel later denied confiscating the oxygen cylinders, telling the regime-controlled newspaper he had only borrowed them for emergency use.

"We have ordered 100 cylinders for Karen State and have already paid for them. At first, it didn't matter when we got the cylinders. But, unfortunately, the oxygen plant in Mawlamyine, where we collect oxygen for Karen State, was broken. So I decided to take The 100 cylinders are for hospitals and COVID-19 centers that really need them," he explained.

However, eyewitnesses at the scene said Myanmar military regime forces acted in a threatening manner, showing their weapons while picking up oxygen cylinders, while using COVID-19 patients in Karen State as an excuse.

The junta forces take the cylinder despite the intervention of Major Mote Thone of the Myawaddy-based Karen State Border Guard Force.

On Saturday evening, the military regime forces handed over 800,000 Thai Baht (about 40 million kyat) to oxygen cylinder importers, as a guarantee they would return the cylinders to him.

Minister U Aung Naing Oo of the regime-controlled Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations has intervened in the case, but 100 oxygen cylinders have not been returned. Irrawaddy was unable to reach Colonel Myo Min Naung for comment.

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