Two Myanmar military planes bombed a village in western Myanmar where there was no fighting on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20 others, according to ethnic rebels and residents.
The apparently unprovoked attack on the village of Khuabung in Chin state’s Thantlang township, near the Indian border, is the latest use of air power by the military in its expanding offensive against paramilitaries and ethnic armies of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force.
It’s a tactic that has become increasingly common as the country’s armed resistance has made greater gains. Such attacks are often carried out by the military to support troops fighting anti-junta forces to devastating effect.
Chin National Front spokesman Salai Htet Ni told FDR Burmese that the attack by the two planes was unprovoked and clearly targeted civilians.
However, Thantlang is one of several townships under martial law that the junta has targeted with multiple airstrikes since the beginning of the year.
“They attacked this morning (around 10:00 am) without any battle taking place,” Salai Htet Ni said. “They dropped bombs on a civilian village.” At least 10 residents were killed and 20 injured, he said.
The airstrike burned down many of the town’s houses, residents said. Khuabung, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Thantlang Municipality headquarters, is home to more than 230 people living in 53 households.
Increase in air strikes
According to the Chin Human Rights Organization, the military launched at least 53 airstrikes, dropping more than 140 bombs, in the townships of Mindat, Hakha, Matupi and Thantlang in the first two months of 2023 alone.
The attacks killed five members of the Chin National Front and three members of the local anti-junta People’s Defense Force, and also injured six civilians.
In addition to the attack on the village of Khuabung on Thursday, the army also used Mi-35 jets to bomb areas it suspected were occupied by local PDF groups, the Chin National Front said.
The army has yet to issue any statement on the Khuabung shelling and RFA attempts to contact Thant Zin, the junta spokesman for Chin state, went unanswered on Thursday.
A report issued by the UN human rights agency earlier this month said junta airstrikes in Myanmar had more than doubled from 125 in 2021 to 301 in 2022.
The report followed a March 1 joint statement by Amnesty International, Global Witness and the Burma Campaign (UK) urging governments to sanction companies that sell jet fuel to the junta to limit the country’s air force.
While international sanctions have limited the air force to some extent, former military officials in Myanmar have said they will never be fully effective as long as powerful countries such as Russia and China back the junta.
Deaths and displacement in Shan State
News of the airstrikes in Thantlang came as the RFA learned that at least 33 civilians have been killed and more than 5,000 displaced from Pinlaung, Pekon and Mobye townships in the southern Shan state in the first three months alone. of the year.
Yin Lianghan, a spokesman for the Shan Human Rights Foundation, said his organization compiled the statistics after interviewing Buddhist monks displaced by violence as well as aid workers in the region.
“These people have been severely displaced due to the junta’s heavy artillery shelling and a massacre in Nam Neint village,” he said, referring to a March 11 incident in which junta troops killed 21 civilians. , including three monks, in one early morning. raid on a monastery in Pinlaung before burning down the village.
“The main reason they have become refugees is because of the junta’s extrajudicial execution of innocent civilians,” he said.
The junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tun, told pro-junta media that the Karenni National Defense Army carried out the massacre in the village of Nem Neint, but the KNDF claims it was the work of the military.
According to the Shan Human Rights Foundation, at least two children were among those killed by military shelling in Pinlaung and Mobye townships since the beginning of the year.
tensions rise
Khun Bwe Hone, the information officer for the Pa’O National Defense Force, told RFA that the deaths and displacements occurred amid rising tensions between the army and the ethnic Pa’O Nationalities Defense Force. Karrenni in the three municipalities, while the board prepares a major offensive in the area.
“The junta is reinforcing its troops,” he said, noting that most villagers have already left the area in anticipation of the fighting.
“Our defense forces have warned them to flee to safety. That’s why they left. This battle is likely to drag on because we are determined to fight the military dictatorship… to the end and the enemy will also do what he has set out to do.”
A woman who fled fighting in the area told RFA on condition of anonymity that civilians are pouring into the Pinlaung township headquarters from nearby villages to take refuge in displacement camps.
The exact number of refugees is unknown, aid worker Khun Kyaw Shwe said. While the refugees receive assistance from social support groups and area residents, they are in “desperate need of medicine” as well as food and access to clean water, he said.
“Right now, the local medical teams are taking care of them with what little medicine they have,” Khun Kyaw Shwe told RFA. “The demand for medicines is quite severe. The refugee camps are dealing with outbreaks of malaria, influenza and respiratory infections.”
Only about 20 days worth of food tents remain for the camps in Pinlaung, he said, urging international donors to help fill the gaps.
RFA was unable to reach Khun Thein Maung, the junta finance minister and spokesman for Shan state, for comment on the killings and displacements.
Translated by Myo Myin Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
