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tom andrews
'A War Crime': Myanmar Airstrikes on Junta Opponents Kill at Least 30 Children
"Supplies of aviation fuel reaching the military enable these war crimes," warned one human rights campaigner. "These shipments must stop now."
Apr 11, 2023
More than 100 people including at least 30 children were reportedly killed Tuesday in airstrikes by Myanmar's military dictatorship targeting opponents of the coup regime.
Witnesses and members of the opposition National Unity Government told reporters that a military jet and Mi-35 helicopter gunship bombed and strafed a gathering marking the opening of a new office of the People's Defense Force (PDF), a militant resistance group, in the village of Pa Zi Gyi, Kanbalu Township in the country's northwestern Sagaing region.
"This was a war crime," Byar Kyi, a resistance fighter who helped recover victims' bodies, told The New York Times. "The place they attacked was not a military target."
Tom Andrews, the United Nations' special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, tweeted: "The Myanmar military's attacks against innocent people, including today's airstrike in Sagaing, [are] enabled by world indifference and those supplying them with weapons. How many Myanmar children need to die before world leaders take strong, coordinated action to stop this carnage?"
\u201cATTENTION: 100 killed & 50 injured.\n\nRFA Burmese reports that the Myanmar junta carried out an airstrike during the inauguration of a Public Admin: Office led by NUG in Pazigyi village in Sagaing's Kantbalu. The airstrike killed nearly 100 residents and left more than 50 injured.\u201d— Ro Nay San Lwin (@Ro Nay San Lwin) 1681213040
One villager told the BBC that the jet bombed Pa Zi Gyi at about 7:00 am local time, followed by a sustained 20-minute attack by the helicopter.
Local residents and journalists uploaded gruesome photos and videos showing dead and dismembered children, many of their bodies burned or blasted beyond recognition, lying strewn about the bombed-out village in the wake of the attack.
"The corpses cannot be identified since they are all scattered in body parts—legs and heads," one rescue worker told The Irrawaddy, an anti-junta news site. "After gathering them all, we burned them."
"The corpses cannot be identified since they are all scattered in body parts—legs and heads."
A resident of a neighboring village told the same publication that "at the moment it's hard to say exactly how many casualties there were."
"We haven't been able to retrieve bodies and body parts, as the area where the air strike occurred is still burning," they added.
Regional media also reported at least 11 deaths in a Monday airstrike on a high school run by the Chin National Defense Force in Falam Township, Chin state.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 While the world forgets Myanmar,the junta intensifies airstrikes against civilian.On April 10, 11 civilians,including a pastor & a headmaster, were killed in targeted airstrikes in Phalam, ChinState.On April 11, 100 more civilian are killed due to shelling in KantBalu,Sagaing.\u201d— Wai Wai Nu (@Wai Wai Nu) 1681193629
Myanmar's military—which seized power in a February 2021 coup—frequently targets anti-regime strongholds including Sagaing and Chin state. According to a BBC analysis published at the end of January, there have been over 600 aerial attacks by the junta's forces since the coup.
Last September, a pair of military helicopters attacked a school in Sagaing, killing at least 11 children, according to the United Nations children's agency. The following month, regime warplanes bombed an outdoor concert in Kachin state, killing at least 80 people.
"The military continues its mindless war on our country's own people. Their sole aim is to consolidate power through death and destruction. They will not succeed," National Unity Government Acting President Duwa Lashi La said in a Tuesday Facebook post.
"We will continue our fight for a new Myanmar," he added. "Our goal is a Myanmar in which such atrocities cannot occur and where power derives from the will of the people, not force of arms."
Human rights groups amplified calls to suspend aviation fuel shipments to Myanmar's military in the wake of the latest airstrikes.
"The relentless air attacks across Myanmar highlight the urgent need to suspend the import of aviation fuel," Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International's business and human rights researcher, said in a statement.
"Amnesty reiterates its calls on all states and businesses to stop shipments that may end up in the hands of the Myanmar Air Force," Ferrer continued. "This supply chain fuels violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, and it must be disrupted in order to save lives."
\u201cInitial reports on deadly air strikes in Sagaing Region are horrifying. The relentless air attacks across Myanmar highlight the urgent need to suspend the import of aviation fuel.\n https://t.co/MmzU9hd3jD\u201d— Amnesty International (@Amnesty International) 1681228520
Referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Ferrer added: "Instead of taking a back seat, ASEAN must step up and play a leading role in resolving the human rights catastrophe in Myanmar. The United Nations Security Council must find ways to push through effective actions to hold the Myanmar military accountable, including by referring the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court."
The European Union and countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have moved to block the sale, supply, and shipment of aviation fuel to the Myanmarese regime and associated companies and businesspeople.
However, a March report from Amnesty International, Global Witness, and Burma Campaign U.K. showed Asian and European companies continued to be involved in supplying Myanmar's military with aviation fuel.
"Since the military's coup in 2021, it has brutally suppressed its critics and attacked civilians from the ground and the air. Supplies of aviation fuel reaching the military enable these war crimes," Ferrer said last month. "These shipments must stop now."
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UN Envoy Warns of 'Mass Deaths' in Myanmar as Junta Violence Forces 100,000 to Flee for Their Lives
"Now more than ever, the international community must cut off access to the resources the junta needs to continue these brutal attacks on the people of Myanmar."
Jun 09, 2021
The United Nations special rapporteur for Myanmar warned Tuesday that persistent violence waged by the nation's military junta could lead to "mass deaths from starvation, disease, and exposure" as more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee for their lives into nearby forests, where they lack access to food, safe drinking water, and adequate shelter.
"It has been reported that junta forces are stopping aid from reaching these desperate people by setting up military blockades," said Tom Andrews, who has served as the U.N.'s special rapporteur for Myanmar since last year. "I have also received distressing reports that junta forces are laying landmines on public roads. Any pressure or leverage U.N. member states can put on the junta must now be exerted."
"These attacks against civilians throughout Kayah State are the latest in a series throughout Myanmar causing massive displacement and humanitarian suffering."
--Tom Andrews, U.N. special rapporteur for Myanmar
The military junta seized control of Myanmar's government in February after the nation's armed forces arrested civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and declared a state of emergency, transferring power to top general Min Aung Hlaing.
The coup sparked mass street protests that have been met with vicious repression by Myanmar's military, which since taking power has killed more than 800 civilians, detained nearly 6,000 people, and subverted the Southeast Asian country's tenuous steps toward democracy.
According to the U.N., around 100,000 men, women, and children have been internally displaced in Kayah State, where members of the People's Defense Force--a group formed in opposition to the coup regime--have fought Myanmar's heavily-armed military.
One activist in Kayah State told NBC News that some people who have been forced to flee their homes "have to survive on rice broth as we cannot deliver rice bags to them." The activist said members of the Myanmar military have been arresting people for attempting to deliver aid to the displaced.
Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that "people living in Kayah [say] the military has launched indiscriminate air attacks and shelling in civilian areas after fighting broke out on May 21 between the security forces" and the People's Defense Force.
"There have been several deaths, including that of a 14-year-old boy who was shot dead in Loikaw township and a young man who was shot in the head with his hands tied behind his back," Al Jazeera continued. "The military has repeatedly attacked churches in the predominantly Christian area, in one instance killing four people who were among 300 villagers sheltering at a Catholic church in Loikaw."
In his statement on Tuesday, Andrews said the international community must push the Myanmar regime to immediately "stop terrorizing the population" and "open access roads and allow life-saving aid to reach those in need."
"These attacks against civilians throughout Kayah State are the latest in a series throughout Myanmar causing massive displacement and humanitarian suffering, including Mutraw in Karen State, Mindat in Chin State, and Bago City, among other areas," said Andrews. "Now more than ever, the international community must cut off access to the resources the junta needs to continue these brutal attacks on the people of Myanmar."
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As Junta Kills Over 100 in Myanmar, UN Expert Says It Is 'Past Time for the World to Respond'
"The military celebrated Armed Forces Day by committing mass murder against the people it should be defending," said United Nations special rapporteur Tom Andrews.
Mar 27, 2021
While Myanmar's military celebrated Armed Forces Day on Saturday with a parade through the capital, the ruling junta's security forces killed more than 100 people elsewhere throughout the country in the deadliest crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protesters since last month's coup.
According to Myanmar Now, soldiers and police had killed at least 114 people, including children, nationwide as of 9:30 pm on Saturday in Myanmar.
"The military celebrated Armed Forces Day by committing mass murder against the people it should be defending," said Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. "The Civil Disobedience Movement is responding with powerful weapons of peace."
"It's past time," Andrews added, "for the world to respond in kind with and for the people of Myanmar."
Saturday's brutal massacre, which came just one day after a regional human rights group reported that the total death toll since the military regime seized power on February 1 had climbed to 328, was widely condemned by diplomats around the world.
"This bloodshed is horrifying," said U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda. "Myanmar's people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule."
The European Union's delegation to Myanmar tweeted: "This 76th Myanmar Armed Forces Day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonor. The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts."
\u201cThis 76th Myanmar armed forces day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour. The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts. The EU stands by the people of Myanmar and calls for an immediate end of violence and the restoration of democracy.\u201d— EUMyanmar (@EUMyanmar) 1616839194
British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said that "today's killing of unarmed civilians, including children, marks a new low. We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy."
In a statement issued Thursday, Andrews had warned that "conditions in Myanmar are deteriorating, but they will likely get much worse without an immediate robust, international response in support of those under siege."
"It is imperative that the international community heed the recent call of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a 'firm, unified international response,'" Andrews said. "To date, however, the limited sanctions imposed by member states do not cut the junta's access to revenue that help sustain its illegal activities, and the slow pace of diplomacy is out of step with the scale of the crisis."
Andrews noted that "the incremental approach to sanctions has left the most lucrative business assets of the junta unscathed. It needs to be replaced by robust action that includes a diplomatic offensive designed to meet the moment."
"Without a focused, diplomatic solution, including the hosting of an emergency summit that brings together Myanmar's neighbors and those countries with great influence in the region, I fear the situation of human rights in Myanmar will further deteriorate as the junta increases the rate of murders, enforced disappearances, and torture," he said.
Andrews' fears were realized Saturday as the military escalated its use of lethal violence against anti-coup demonstrators and other civilians.
"They are killing us like birds or chickens, even in our homes," resident Thu Ya Zaw told Reuters in the central town of Myingyan. "We will keep protesting regardless... We must fight until the junta falls."
The resolve of pro-democracy protesters is evident. According to Al Jazeera, citizens defied a "military warning that they could be shot 'in the head and back'" in order to take to "the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other towns."
Kyaw Win, the director of the Burma Human Rights Network in the United Kingdom, told BBC News that the military had shown it had "no limits, no principles."
"It's a massacre, it's not a crackdown anymore," Win added.
In his statement released prior to Saturday's wholesale killing, Andrews emphasized that "it is critical that the people of Myanmar... the duly elected illegally deposed parliamentarians who make up the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, and opposition leaders and activists see that the international community is working towards a diplomatic solution in support of the peaceful Civil Disobedience Movement."
"This combined course of action--domestic peaceful resistance, sustained pressure, and international diplomatic momentum--will have a greater chance for success than taking up arms," Andrews continued, "and will save untold numbers of lives."
"Member states have an opportunity to demonstrate this alternative, but the window in which this can be achieved is closing rapidly," he said, adding: "I fear that the international community has only a short time remaining to act."
That warning has become even more urgent since it was first shared.
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