Myanmar airstrike kills civilians, sparking global outcry as witnesses describe attack

A series of deadly air strikes by Myanmar’s military on a civilian crowd has sparked widespread condemnation, as witnesses recounted the horror of the attack that could be the junta’s deadliest since a coup two years ago.

The initial death toll stood at 53 from Tuesday’s attacks on a village ceremony in Sagaing region at which women and children were present, but later tallies reported by independent media raised it to about 100.

Myanmar’s air force dropped multiple bombs while attack helicopters strafed the civilian gathering of several hundred people, said Duwa Lashi La, acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), which was set up to oppose junta rule.

Washington called on the regime to stop the “horrific violence”. State department spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “These violent attacks further underscore the regime’s disregard for human life and its responsibility for the dire political and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, formerly Burma, following the February 2021 coup.”

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Nabila Massrali, a spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy of the EU said: “The EU is deeply shocked by reports of the latest atrocity committed by the military regime in Sagaing, taking the lives of dozens of innocent civilians. We will continue to work to hold those responsible fully accountable.”

Germany’s foreign office said it “strongly [condemns] the Myanmar army’s air strike killing dozens of civilians, including many children,” adding: “We expect the regime to end the violence against its people immediately.”

UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the air strikes whose victims he said included schoolchildren performing dances, with the global body calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Tom Andrews, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, criticised the international response to the crisis in Myanmar: “The Myanmar military’s attacks against innocent people, including today’s air strike in Sagaing, is enabled by world indifference and those supplying them with weapons. How many Myanmar children need to die before world leaders take strong, co-ordinated action to stop this carnage?”

Aung Myo Min, minister of human rights at the NUG, said: “Only last week, the UN’s HRC [human rights council] passed a resolution that condemned the junta’s deliberate use of force against civilians and called on the junta to immediately cease all air strikes. The junta has answered in the only way it know how – through intensified atrocities and bloodshed.”

Images shared online that appeared to have been taken after the attacks on the village of Pa Zi Gyi showed people in civilian clothes dead on the ground beside a destroyed structure. In a video, a man can be heard saying: “If you have survived, please make a sound.” He tells others: “If you hear a shout, help them. Go, go.”

Sagaing region – near the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay – has put up some of the fiercest resistance to the military’s rule, with intense fighting raging there for months.

One witness at the event described the scene to the Associated Press: “The jet dropped bombs directly on the crowd, and I jumped into a nearby ditch and hid. A few moments later, when I stood up and looked around, I saw people cut to pieces and dead in the smoke.

“The office building was destroyed by fire. About 30 people were injured. While the wounded were being transported, a helicopter arrived and shot more people. We are now cremating the bodies quickly.”

The witness estimated 20-30 children were among the dead, adding that those killed also included leaders of locally formed antigovernment armed groups and other opposition organisations.

In videos of the devastated village seen by AP, survivors and onlookers stumble through the area of the attack amid clouds of thick smoke, with only the skeleton frame of one building still standing in the distance. The videos could not immediately be verified but matched other descriptions of the scene.

The military took responsibility for the air strike but denied it had killed civilians, claiming instead it had targeted “terrorists”. In response to accusations of abuses, the military government often accuses pro-democracy forces of terrorism.

“Yes, we launched the air strike,” military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told a state-backed television channel, adding that the buildings nearby exploded because anti-junta forces known as the People’s Defence Forces – the armed wing of the NUG – had stored ammunition there. “That’s why it exploded and people died,” he said.

On social media, many turned their profile pictures black in tribute to those killed, while the NUG’s acting president Duwa Lashi La asked neighbouring countries to provide humanitarian assistance to Sagaing and other regions engulfed in the conflict.

Amnesty International business and human rights researcher Montse Ferrer said there was an urgent need to suspend the supply of aviation fuel to Myanmar’s military.

“This supply chain fuels violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, and it must be disrupted in order to save lives,” Ferrer said. “Unlawful air attacks killing and injuring civilians and destroying homes are a trademark of the Myanmar military, which goes to despicable lengths to crush resistance and instil fear in the population. Myanmar’s civilians bear the brunt of these sickening tactics.”

UN secretary general António Guterres “strongly condemns the attack by the Myanmar Armed Forces today,” according to a statement by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. Guterres “reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country,” Dujarric added. – Guardian