Dozens of deaths, including civilians, in a shelling by the Myanmar Army | International

An aerial bombardment by the Myanmar Army against an act of the position of the coup military regime that governs the country, causing the death of at least 50 people on Tuesday in the town of Pazigyi, located in the northwestern region of Sagaing. According to residents of that area, quoted by local media, the missing in this attack could even rise to a hundred, including dozens of children. The spokesman for the Burmese military junta, Zaw Min Tun, assumed responsibility for the bombing on Wednesday.

The airstrike occurred early Tuesday morning (early morning in Spain) and was aimed at an inauguration ceremony for an administrative office linked to the opposition National Unity Government (NUG), the political arm of the Armed Forces. of Defense of the People (PDF), an opposition movement that presents itself as the legitimate government of the country after the military coup of February 1, 2021. The trigger for this military coup was the electoral victory of November 8, 2020 of the leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

“We carried out the attack during the opening ceremony. PDF members were killed. They are the ones who oppose the government of this country,” Ellos Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military regime, told the Myawaddy television channel, owned by the coup junta, on Wednesday. Min Tun defined the opponents as “terrorists” and later admitted that civilians “forced to support them” also died in the bombardment “probably” [a los opositores]”.

A member of the PDF explained to the Reuters agency that some 100 corpses, including those of 16 children, have already been cremated after the attack on Tuesday. “The exact death toll is still unclear as there are body parts scattered everywhere,” contributed the PDF member, who did not want to be named. The BBC Burma, Radio Free Asia and the Irrawaddy news portal, which cited residents of the attacked town, agreed that more than a hundred people, including dozens of children and women, could have perished in the bombardment. It is estimated that up to 150 people can attend the ceremony targeted by the attack, in which food is served for the residents of the town.

According to another spokesperson for the position cited by Efe, the combat planes also bombarded the town again when the volunteers searched for survivors among the rubble and removed the lifeless bodies, many of them mutilated. Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the opposition NUG, told Reuters that several helicopters armed with artillery also attacked those attending the opposition act, an incursion that he defined as “another brutal, barbaric and senseless attack by the Army.” Myanmar’s opposition fighters lack heavy weapons and have no effective defense against the country’s regular army aviation.

This is not the first time that the Burmese military regime has used combat aircraft against an opposition group or against the civilian population. In October, one of those jets attacked a concert, killing at least 50 civilians, singers and musicians, as well as members of an insurgent force made up of members of ethnic minorities in the northern state of Kachin.

The bombing this Tuesday takes place two weeks after, on March 27, the leader of the junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, warned that he would “firmly appease” the resistance, with a special focus on the NUG and read PDF. The escalation of violence by the Burmese Army, accused of crimes against humanity by the UN for its attacks against the Rohingya minority, coincides with information from the ground that ensures that the military has not managed to control more than a quarter of the country since the coup .

The PDF — made up of former deputies from the ousted civilian government and young people who have joined ethnic minority guerrillas — have been increasing their warfare skills. That is the reason why, according to various experts, the Burmese military has intensified its attacks and increased its brutality.

international condemnation

The international community, including the United States, the European Union and the UN, have condemned the Sagaing attack, one of the worst massacres since the 2021 military coup that ended a decade of democratic transition. The UN Rapporteur for Burma, Thomas Andrews, denounced in March that more than 3,000 civilians have been killed, 1.3 million have had to flee their homes and 16,000 have become political prisoners since the coup, including Suu Kyi.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has expressed a strong condemnation of this bombing. Guterres has reiterated “his call on him to the military to end the campaign of violence against the people of Myanmar throughout the country.” The Burmese army has denied international accusations of having committed atrocities against civilians and justifies the massacres on the grounds that it is fighting “terrorists”.

The US State Department has expressed “deep concern” about Tuesday’s attack and added that Washington will continue to work with the international community to “hold the regime accountable for human rights violations and abuses committed” in Myanmar. Western countries have imposed sanctions on the junta and its vast network of businesses to try to reduce their income and access to weapons from suppliers such as Russia.

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