So far 80 bodies have been recovered, but many more are mangled and difficult to identify, according to local witnesses. Among the injured are dozens of women and children celebrating the traditional Burmese New Year. The coup junta admitted having carried out the incursion with a military plane and a combat helicopter. Today, a Christian village was attacked for the third time in a year.
Yangon ( / Agencies) – Dozens of civilians were massacred yesterday by the Burmese coup junta, in one of the worst bombardments since the civil war broke out after the coup on February 1, 2021. Witnesses affirm that so far they have collected at least 80 bodies, but the number of victims is expected to increase with the passing of the hours. According to local sources, the death toll would be at least 100, while the injured would be at least 50.
Army spokesman General Zaw Min Tun was interviewed by state media and admitted responsibility for the military junta in the bombing. The air force attacked the town of Pa Zi Gyi, in Kanbalu township, in the interior of the Sagaing region. The reason: there was an inauguration ceremony for the administrative office of the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), some of the militias that make up the resistance and that the military have labeled as terrorist groups.
The PDFs were formed two years ago after the army took power and are the armed wing of the Government of National Unity (GUN) in exile, made up mostly of former representatives of the National League for Democracy (LND), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s former civilian leader deposed and imprisoned by the army after the coup.
Witnesses reported that the injured included many women, the elderly and children, who were present to receive food offerings during the ceremony that coincided with the celebrations of Thingyan, the traditional Burmese New Year. The village leaders were gathered in a main building, while many children as young as two or three remained in the immediate vicinity. A military plane dropped two bombs on the crowd. An Mi-35 helicopter then arrived and opened fire on them, maiming and killing large numbers of civilians.” recounted a PDF officer. Survivors posted videos online showing dismembered corpses and burning buildings and motorcycles.
The difficulty in establishing an exact number of victims lies in the fact that many corpses are no longer recognizable: a local explained that there were “too many finger-sized body parts scattered all over the streets” and one could hardly “walk without stepping on them”: “Some corpses were headless, while other heads were bodyless. There is no way to identify them,” he added.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said he was “appalled” by the massacre, noting that there were students in traditional dress and civilians at the ceremony. “Despite the fact that the military has an obligation to protect civilians in the context of hostilities, there was a flagrant disregard for the norms of international law,” he said in a note. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the army and its affiliated militias are responsible for a wide range of human rights violations and abuses, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
From February 1, 2021 to January this year, the Burmese coup junta, which relies on Russian and Chinese planes, carried out at least 600 bombardments against villages controlled by anti-coup forces in different parts of the country. The Christian village of Chaung Yoe, in the Sagaing region, was attacked yesterday for the third time in just over a year. The soldiers destroyed the pews of the local church and set some motorcycles on fire, while the inhabitants fled without being able to take their belongings. In recent weeks there have also been daily clashes between army troops and local ethnic resistance militias in the Christian-majority Chin state.
