The Burmese military junta sponsored Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) has offered 'free medical surgery' to people in Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachin State in the north of the country, said local sources. It is meant to woo the electorate for the 2010 general elections which the USDA will contest, sources added.
A local source close to the USDA said, the free surgery offer seems to be 'a special project' of the ruling junta for mobilising ethnic Kachins to garner support for the 2010 elections in the country.
The USDA's offer includes surgery of eyes, nose and lips without patients incurring any cost. The surgeries are being performed at the Myitkyina General Public Hospital. Patients, however have to bring a recommendation letter from their quarter or village administrative offices (Ya-Ya-Ka) approved by the USDA, residents in Myitkyina said.
The USDA's offer to have surgeries done started early this month in Myitkyina. With the help of the junta's administrative offices in villages and quarters, USDA members are organizing free surgery for patients who are interested. USDA members are visiting each quarter in the township to announce their offer, locals said.
Earlier, USDA members visited ethnic Kachins and Christian majority Shatapru and Tatkone quarters in the township and compiled a list of patients' who were willing to avail the USDA's free medical surgery offer, said residents of the two quarters.
Recently, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw Minister of Post, Communication and Telegraph and special organizer for Kachin State met people from the Kachin Christian community in Myitkyina on September 19 and Waingmaw on September 20 and made small donations. He also made landline phones available to them.
Salang Rawang Jung, general secretary of the USDA in Kachin State said at a meeting where the Kachin Christian community in Machyangbaw in Pautao District was present on August 26 that "the USDA is a stable party. Whoever emerges victorious in the 2010 elections, we will be the winner party."
