Locals charge junta forcibly administering contraceptives

Locals charge junta forcibly administering contraceptives 

The rural populace in Mongton have accused military authorities of forcible inoculation of contraceptives to Shan women, said sources coming to the border. 

On 28 November, Dr. Soe Maung, head of Mongton Hospital, arrived in Nakawngmu, roughly halfway along the 50-mile-long highway between Mongton and BP-1, escorted by 10-soldiers under the command of Lt. Kyaw Aye, Company 3, IB 65. Married Shan women in the surrounding areas were ordered to gather in the village to receive injections of a certain drug which, they explained, would be beneficial for the health of both mother and infant. "Your babies will not even need any kind of vaccinations," the doctor was said to have told the villagers. 

The people nevertheless felt uneasy although no one dared to speak out, they said. 

"For the first thing, women other than Shan origin were not summoned, which made us wonder what's wrong with us. Secondly, they threatened us with a K. 30,000 fine each if we refused to comply and finally, they took care to collect all the empty ampoules and did not allow us to keep them at all even though some of us asked," said one woman. 

Many suspected they were contraceptives. "Otherwise, why should they go into such elaborate details?" argued one. 

An earlier report, also hard to confirm, said a directive issued by Dr. Saw Naing Oo, head of the Sao Sarm Htoon Hospital in Taunggyi, on 1 November specified Shan women in the rural areas as target recipients of the drug. "It said every married woman, including those one-month after giving birth, should be injected. Those who refuse face 10-year imprisonments," said a woman trader who came from Namzang. 

According to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, "imposing measures intended to prevent births" is considered genocide.