Families were still discovering the charred bodies and limbs of victims slain in a military bombing on a village in central Burma Wednesday, one day after the junta seized power in a coup two years ago.
An eyewitness who hid in a tunnel during the bombing recalled seeing children dying, women wailing, and bodies heaped on the ground when he neared the location of the military bombardment.
According to the Kyunhla activist group, at least 100 people were murdered after Myanmar’s military junta attacked Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing district on Tuesday. According to the NGO, the strike killed at least 20 children and injured 50 others.
An eyewitness told CNN under the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation that some 300 people had gathered in Pazigyi Village early Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of a local administration office. Family had traveled from neighbouring villages for the gathering, which included tea and food and marked the beginning of the Thingyan New Year celebrations.
The neighborhood, like much of Sagaing, is not controlled by the military junta. As part of the anti-junta resistance, a new town office was established under the jurisdiction of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) for the people.
After the incident, the eyewitness spotted dozens of bodies, including children as young as five. He claimed to have lost four family members during the strike, including a little child from his community.
“I witnessed a lot of people arriving onto the scene crying and yelling to look for their kids,” he claimed. The junta jets returned at 5:30 p.m. and blasted the same location they had targeted earlier that day, he said.
According to Reuters, Myanmar’s junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun confirmed the airstrike on Pazigyi Village and stated that civilian casualties occurred as a result of being forced to aid “terrorists.”
The junta has labeled the NUG and other resistance organisations in the country as terrorists.
“Around 8 a.m…. NUG (National Unity Government) and PDF (People’s Defense Force) held an opening ceremony for the public administration office in Pazigyi village,” Zaw Min Tun stated on the military’s Myawaddy TV channel.
“We had attacked them. We were told that PDF were killed during the attack at that occasion. They are working against our government.”
The strike was widely denounced around the world, with one top UN official claiming that global indifference to Myanmar’s condition contributed to the attack.
“World apathy and those supplying weapons enable the Myanmar military’s crimes against innocent people, including today’s airstrike in Sagaing,” said Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma.
“How many Myanmar children must perish before world leaders take decisive, concerted action to put an end to this carnage?”
The US State Department expressed “grave concern” about the bombing and urged the regime to “stop the heinous violence.”
“These savage acts highlight the regime’s contempt for human life, as well as its role for the terrible political and humanitarian crises in Burma following the February 2021 coup,” it stated, referring to Myanmar by another name. Little over two years have passed since the military seized control, deposing the democratically elected government and imprisoning its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. To eliminate opposition, the junta regularly conducts airstrikes and ground attacks on what it claims to as “terrorist” targets.
Civilians, including children, were killed in the attacks, which targeted schools, clinics, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure. According to local monitoring groups, junta soldiers have burned down entire communities, displacing thousands of people.
Every day, battles between the military and opposition organizations erupt in Myanmar. These rebel groups, some of which have allied with long-established ethnic militias in the country, essentially rule portions of the country beyond the junta’s control.
Despite a growing collection of evidence, resistance groups and humanitarian organizations have frequently accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out mass executions, air strikes, and war crimes against civilians in areas where fighting has raged.
“Their grip on the country is slipping. They’re slipping behind. “On the ground, things are considerably more unstable than they’ve ever been,” UN’s Andrews told CNN on Wednesday. “As a result, they’re employing more and more air power, and as a result, more and more civilians are being murdered.”
According to local media Burma Today and The Irrawaddy, junta aircraft targeted Falam Township in western Chin state on Monday, killing nine people when bombs were dropped on a school.
According to a Facebook post from Thailand’s Tak provincial office public relations department, 8,000 refugees from southern Karen state rushed across the border to Thailand last week to escape conflict in Myawaddy township.
At least 22 people were slain in March at a monastery in southern Shan state, including three monks. In addition, in September, a military airstrike on a school in Sagaing killed at least 13 people, including seven children.
The “situation in Burma is worse now,” according to an eyewitness to Tuesday’s attack.
“People are dying as if they were dogs or cows.” We lack weapons to compete with the military. “We need the international community’s assistance,” he stated.
