Myanmar’s junta carried out 47 airstrikes, killing at least 19 people and destroying multiple religious buildings and civilian homes in Chin state in April alone, a human rights group said on Thursday.
The campaign, in which an average of nearly two bombs were dropped on the western state every day this month, comes as the Chin National Front claimed new territorial gains in the region, suggesting the army has intensified air operations in the middle of an increasingly stymied running offense.
Since April 1, the Myanmar air force has dropped more than 80 bombs in Chin state, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. The attacks killed 17 civilians and wounded 34 others, the group’s managing officer Salai Man Hre Lian told RFA Burmese, as well as two members of the armed resistance.
“Most of the injured were also civilians,” he said.
The worst loss of life occurred on April 10, when the junta launched three airstrikes in the Falam township in a single day, dropping six bombs near the town of Var around 9:00 a.m., four near a secondary school. in Webula at 11:00 a.m. and six near Ramthlo village at 4:00 p.m.
Residents said the attack on Webula killed nine civilians, including the school principal and his wife and son, and wounded four others.
Six days later, warplanes attacked the village of Pan Par in Mindat municipality, killing three people, including a child, and injuring seven others.
The CNF confirmed that two members of the armed resistance were killed and four others wounded when the junta launched an airstrike earlier this month on a base operated by the Chin National Army’s 4th Brigade in Tedim township, near the border. of Myanmar with India.
CHRO said several buildings, including a Buddhist monastery, a Christian church and at least 20 civilian homes, were destroyed in the April strikes.
The carnage in April followed a March 30 airstrike on the Thantlang municipality’s Khuafo village that killed 10 civilians and injured 20 others, residents told RFA.
According to the CHRO, nearly 10,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes due to junta airstrikes so far this month.
The group said the junta has launched nearly 200 airstrikes and dropped more than 350 bombs on targets in Chin state since the army orchestrated a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The strikes have killed 38 people and injured almost 100.
fighting the board
The April bombing campaign comes amid growing success by anti-junta forces on the ground in Chin, according to CNF spokesman Salai Htet Ni.
On April 23, a paramilitary unit of the People’s Defense Forces attacked a junta military convoy of 30 vehicles, including two armored vehicles, near Chuncung village in Hakha township, sparking intense gunfire.
Despite the military’s advantage in the team, the PDF was able to defeat its opponent and prevent the convoy from continuing to the Hakha headquarters, Salai Htet Ni said.
“All the military vehicles were destroyed by the resistance forces,” he said, adding that around 30 junta soldiers remain stationed in Chuncung. “We now have control over 70 out of 100 territories in nine (out of 19) townships in Chin state.”
Given the success of anti-junta forces on the ground in Chin, the army has intensified its airstrikes and villagers have responded by digging trenches and other rudimentary defenses.
“Each village has built bomb defenses, such as trenches, to protect themselves from junta airstrikes,” said a Hakha resident who, like other Chin villagers the RFA spoke to, declined to be identified. for security reasons. “But with attacks as unexpected as these, it has been very difficult for us to set up effective defenses.”
The army has yet to issue any statement on the April airstrikes and RFA attempts to contact Thant Zin, the junta’s social minister and spokesman for Chin state, went unanswered on Thursday.
A legal expert, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, noted that Myanmar is a signatory to and accountable under the Geneva Convention, which sets international legal standards for humanitarian treatment during conflict.
“(The convention) prohibits all armed forces from attacking non-military or civilian targets in times of war,” he said. “It also restricts the armed forces from using highly destructive airstrikes and dropping bombs in civil wars.”
A Thantlang resident called the junta’s unprovoked airstrikes “cowardly.”
“I think the junta attacks towns to terrorize people,” he said. “If they are truly brave, they would only fight against armed groups. Targeting innocent people like us is extremely cowardly.”
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.