Myanmar health minister backs down on military appointments

13 August 2015
Myanmar health minister backs down on military appointments
An orthopedic surgeon (L, partially obscured) wears a black ribbon on his medical smock, sympathizing with the 'Black Ribbon Movement', inside an operation theatre at Yangon General Hospital, in Yangon, Myanmar, 11 August 2015. Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

Myanmar's health minister on Wednesday scrapped plans to fill more of the 300 vacancies at his ministry with military personnel, after thousands of people joined a rare online protest against eight initial appointments Reuters reported on 13 August.
The Black Ribbon Movement, launched this week by medical workers and doctors following the appointments, called on the government to end the "militarization" of the ministry.
"We had planned to appoint more people from the Ministry of Defence, but we won't go ahead with the plan since it's against the wishes of most people from the medical field," Health Minister Than Aung told Reuters.
"I know there is a social media campaign about the decision. It's difficult for us to remove the people who have already been appointed, but that won't happen again," said Than Aung.
The Black Ribbon Movement marks a public show of dissatisfaction by Myanmar's widely respected doctors, who have played little public role in the country's politics since reforms began in 2011.
Hundreds of doctors and nurses from the country's largest hospitals and rural clinics, along with Myanmar medics working in countries including the United States, Korea and Jamaica, commented and uploaded photos featuring black ribbons.