Independent UN experts call Burma school attack a ‘possible war crime’

Sep. 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United Nations Independent Investigation Mechanism for Burma has assessed this Tuesday as a possible war crime a bombing on a school located in the Sagaing region, in the north of the country, which claimed the lives of twelve children.

In a statement, he recalled that the spokesman for the Burmese Army, General Zaw Min Htun, stated that the attack did not target civilians, but soldiers from the Kachin Independence Army and the People’s Defense Forces who They were present at the school.

“However, even if this were the case and the armed attack had a military objective, it is prohibited under the laws of war,” he said, adding that “commanders who decide to launch a military attack near civilians” have obligations to regarding international law.

“They must do everything possible to verify the existence of military objectives; take all practicable precautions in choosing methods and means of warfare to avoid or minimize harm to civilians; and must not launch attacks that are likely to cause disproportionate civilian casualties. or damage to civil property,” he listed.

For this reason, the independent experts of the UN have concluded that commanders who fail to comply with these conditions “may be criminally responsible, as can any soldier or pilot who follows orders to carry out what they should know, given the circumstances, that it is a disproportionate attack.

The European Union also released a statement last Tuesday accusing “Army helicopters” of carrying out the attack, while noting that this crime is “contrary to Humanitarian Law and must be thoroughly investigated.”

Likewise, from the European Union they insisted that neither children nor schools should be targeted in a war, while recalling that, since the military came to power in Burma, more than 380 children have been killed or maimed.

The EU’s diplomatic department called for “the immediate cessation of all attacks on schools” as well as their use for “military purposes.” “Every school should be a protected space for children and students to learn and reach their potential, even during conflict,” he concluded.

According to sources consulted by the newspaper ‘The Irrawaddy’, critical of the military junta that governs the country, two regime helicopters attacked a religious education center in the Burmese town of Tabayin on Saturday, September 17.

The soldiers burned the bodies and took them more than ten kilometers away, supposedly to hide the evidence. The authorities justified the bombing of the school by arguing that armed militiamen were hiding inside.