KACHIN CHRISTIAN MINORITY
Myanmar airstrike kills 60 people at concert, says Kachin separatist group
Reported attack by military comes days before Asean meeting to discuss widening violence in country
Myanmar: aftermath of fatal airstrike on music concert – video
Oliver Holmes and agencies
Reported attack by military comes days before Asean meeting to discuss widening violence in country
Myanmar: aftermath of fatal airstrike on music concert – video
Oliver Holmes and agencies
Mon 24 Oct 2022
Myanmar’s military has killed 60 people, including musicians, in a devastating airstrike that targeted a concert held by a rebel faction of the country’s minority Kachin ethnic group, according to organisers and a rescue worker.
The reported attack came three days before south-east Asian foreign ministers were due to attend a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss the widening violence in the country.
The number of casualties at the celebration in the northern state of Kachin appeared to be the highest in a single air attack by the military since it seized power in a coup in February last year, overthrowing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
It was not possible to independently confirm details of the incident, although media sympathetic to the Kachin people posted videos that showed what was said to be the attack’s aftermath, showing splintered and flattened wooden structures. Footage showed damaged motorcycles, plastic chairs and other debris scattered on the ground.
There was no immediate comment from the military or government media.
For decades, Myanmar’s minorities have sought autonomy through uprisings, but anti-government resistance has increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposed to last year’s military takeover.
Swathes of the country have been engulfed by fighting. Nearly 2,300 civilians have been killed in the crackdown on dissent and 15,000 people have been arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
Sunday’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) was held at a base also used for military training by its armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). It is located near Aung Bar Lay village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 600 miles (965km) north of Yangon.
A spokesperson for the Kachin Artists’ Association told the Associated Press that, according to its members who performed at the celebrations, military aircraft dropped bombs at about 8pm. Between 300 and 500 people were in attendance and a Kachin singer and keyboard player were among the dead, said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified because of fears of reprisals by the authorities.
Those killed also included KIA troops, cooks, jade mining business owners and other civilians, the spokesperson said, adding that at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs were among the dead.
The Kachin News Group, a media outlet sympathetic to the KIO, reported the same number of casualties and said government security forces blocked the wounded from being treated at hospitals in nearby towns.
The UN office in Myanmar said it was “deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes” while Amnesty International warned that the strike showed a pattern of escalating repression by the government.
“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack,” said Hana Young, Amnesty’s deputy regional director.
“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which have killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Young added. “The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these airstrikes and other civilians in need.”
Amnesty has accused the junta of committing widespread atrocities since the 2021 coup, including unlawfully killing, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and forcibly displacing civilians. “It has been able to carry out these crimes in the face of an ineffective international response to a human rights crisis that is only worsening,” Young said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers meeting this week is seeking to resolve the crisis, but the bloc has failed to make meaningful progress so far. Last month, an airstrike in the Sagaing region in the country’s north-west killed at least 11 schoolchildren and two others, according to the United Nations.
The office of UN secretary general, António Guterres, strongly condemned the attack and offered his condolences to the victims’ families.
Such attacks on schools in contravention of international humanitarian law constitute “grave violations against children in times of armed conflict strongly condemned by the security council”, said Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, calling for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
Video footage obtained from a local community group showed a classroom with blood on the floor, damage to the roof and a mother crying over her son’s body.
The junta claimed the deadly attack was targeting rebels hiding in the area, which has experienced some of the fiercest fighting and clashes between anti-coup fighters and the military.
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Myanmar’s military has killed 60 people, including musicians, in a devastating airstrike that targeted a concert held by a rebel faction of the country’s minority Kachin ethnic group, according to organisers and a rescue worker.
The reported attack came three days before south-east Asian foreign ministers were due to attend a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss the widening violence in the country.
The number of casualties at the celebration in the northern state of Kachin appeared to be the highest in a single air attack by the military since it seized power in a coup in February last year, overthrowing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
It was not possible to independently confirm details of the incident, although media sympathetic to the Kachin people posted videos that showed what was said to be the attack’s aftermath, showing splintered and flattened wooden structures. Footage showed damaged motorcycles, plastic chairs and other debris scattered on the ground.
There was no immediate comment from the military or government media.
For decades, Myanmar’s minorities have sought autonomy through uprisings, but anti-government resistance has increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposed to last year’s military takeover.
Swathes of the country have been engulfed by fighting. Nearly 2,300 civilians have been killed in the crackdown on dissent and 15,000 people have been arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
Sunday’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) was held at a base also used for military training by its armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). It is located near Aung Bar Lay village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 600 miles (965km) north of Yangon.
A spokesperson for the Kachin Artists’ Association told the Associated Press that, according to its members who performed at the celebrations, military aircraft dropped bombs at about 8pm. Between 300 and 500 people were in attendance and a Kachin singer and keyboard player were among the dead, said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified because of fears of reprisals by the authorities.
Those killed also included KIA troops, cooks, jade mining business owners and other civilians, the spokesperson said, adding that at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs were among the dead.
The Kachin News Group, a media outlet sympathetic to the KIO, reported the same number of casualties and said government security forces blocked the wounded from being treated at hospitals in nearby towns.
The UN office in Myanmar said it was “deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes” while Amnesty International warned that the strike showed a pattern of escalating repression by the government.
“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack,” said Hana Young, Amnesty’s deputy regional director.
“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which have killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Young added. “The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these airstrikes and other civilians in need.”
Amnesty has accused the junta of committing widespread atrocities since the 2021 coup, including unlawfully killing, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and forcibly displacing civilians. “It has been able to carry out these crimes in the face of an ineffective international response to a human rights crisis that is only worsening,” Young said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers meeting this week is seeking to resolve the crisis, but the bloc has failed to make meaningful progress so far. Last month, an airstrike in the Sagaing region in the country’s north-west killed at least 11 schoolchildren and two others, according to the United Nations.
The office of UN secretary general, António Guterres, strongly condemned the attack and offered his condolences to the victims’ families.
Such attacks on schools in contravention of international humanitarian law constitute “grave violations against children in times of armed conflict strongly condemned by the security council”, said Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, calling for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
Video footage obtained from a local community group showed a classroom with blood on the floor, damage to the roof and a mother crying over her son’s body.
The junta claimed the deadly attack was targeting rebels hiding in the area, which has experienced some of the fiercest fighting and clashes between anti-coup fighters and the military.
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
By GRANT PECK - Associated Press
Oct 24, 2022
BANGKOK (AP) — Air strikes by Myanmar’s military killed as many as 80 people, including singers and musicians, attending an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organization, members of the group and a rescue worker said Monday.
The reported attack comes three days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers are to hold a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss widening violence in Myanmar.
The number of casualties at Sunday night’s celebration, held by the Kachin Independence Organization in the northern state of Kachin, appeared to be the most in a single air attack since the military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Initial reports put the death toll at around 60, but later tallies raised it to about 80.
It was impossible to independently confirm details of the incident, though media sympathetic to the Kachin posted videos showing what was said to be the attack's aftermath, with splintered and flattened wooden structures.
The military government's information office confirmed in a statement late Monday that there was an attack on what it described as the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army's 9th Brigade, calling it a “necessary operation” in response to “terrorist” acts carried out by the Kachin group.
It called reports of a high death toll “rumors,” and denied the military had bombed a concert and that singers and audience members were among the dead.
The United Nations' office in Myanmar said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned and saddened” by reports of the air strikes.
“What would appear to be excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and those responsible must be held to account,” it said.
Envoys representing Western embassies in Myanmar, including the United States, issued a joint statement saying the attack underscores the military regime’s "disregard for its obligation to protect civilians and respect the principles and rules of international humanitarian law.”
Myanmar has been wracked for decades by rebellions by ethnic minorities seeking autonomy, but anti-government resistance increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposing last year’s military takeover.
The Kachin are one of the stronger ethnic rebel groups and are capable of manufacturing some of their own armaments. They also have a loose alliance with the armed militias of the pro-democracy forces that were formed in 2021 in central Myanmar to fight army rule.
Sunday’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization, which included a concert, was held at a base also used for military training by the Kachin Independence Army, the KIO’s armed wing. It is located near Aung Bar Lay village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon.
Hpakant is the center of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry, from which both the government and the rebels derive revenue.
As many as 80 people were killed and about 100 were injured in Sunday’s attack on the first day of a three-day celebration of the KIO's founding, a spokesperson for the Kachin Artists Association told The Associated Press by phone. He said he first heard there had been 60 deaths, but was later told by sources close to Kachin Independence Army officials that about 80 people had died.
He said military aircraft dropped four bombs on the celebration at about 8 p.m., according to members of his group who were there. Between 300 and 500 people were in attendance and a Kachin singer and keyboard player were among the dead, said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified because he feared punishment by the authorities.
Those killed also included Kachin officers and soldiers, musicians, jade mining business owners and other civilians, he said. They also included at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs sitting in front of the stage, and cooks working backstage, he added.
The Kachin News Group, a media outlet sympathetic to the KIO, reported that an initial search found 58 bodies and that government security forces had blocked the wounded from being treated at hospitals in nearby towns. It reported later that more than 20 more bodies had been recovered, bringing the death toll to about 80.
Col. Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army, said by phone that KIA soldiers, musicians, businesspeople and villagers were among the dead, but he could not confirm a casualty number due to communications problems. He said the deaths were a loss for all Kachin people, and its group would fly the Kachin flag at half-staff.
An emergency services rescue worker who was in Hpakant and also asked for anonymity said he saw three military aircraft making bombing runs over the celebration ground, just a few kilometers (miles) away. He said he was barred by the KIO from entering the area but heard that more than 60 people were killed, including a KIA brigade commander.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that tracks killings and arrests, said Friday that 2,377 civilians have died in crackdowns by the security forces since the army took power. Its figure, however, does not always include people killed in military actions in the countryside.
“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which has killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Hana Young, said in a statement.
“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack. The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these air strikes and other civilians in need," Young said.
Cambodia, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, said Sunday that the group’s foreign ministers will hold a special meeting in Indonesia this week to consider the peace process for Myanmar. Myanmar’s generals have all but shunned the group’s previous efforts.
“As officials and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prepare to host high-level meetings in the coming weeks, this attack highlights the need to overhaul the approach to the crisis in Myanmar," Amnesty International said. "ASEAN has to step up and formulate a more robust course of action so that military leaders end this escalating repression.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press.
Scores killed in Myanmar military air strikes on ethnic rebel group
NEWS WIRES - Yesterday
Myanmar military air strikes on a concert held by a major ethnic rebel group killed around 50 people and wounded 70, the rebels said on Monday.
Scores killed in Myanmar military air strikes on ethnic rebel group© AFP - STR
"Around 8:40 pm (2:40pm GMT) Sunday, two Myanmar military jets attacked" a ceremony the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was holding, Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.
"Around 50 people were killed including KIA members and civilians," he said, adding that around 70 were wounded.
Local media reported that up to 60 soldiers and civilians had been killed.
Images shared by local media purported to show the aftermath, with debris littering the ground.
The United Nation's office in Myanmar said it was "deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes that took place in Hpakant, Kachin State".
"Initial reports suggest that over 100 civilians may have been affected by the bombing," it said in a statement.
"Numerous fatalities have also been reported," it added.
A junta spokesman did not respond to request for comment.
The US Embassy in Yangon said it was "following reports of a military airstrike targeting a Kachin gathering resulting in the deaths of a large number of civilians".
The KIA has clashed regularly with the military for decades, with heavy fighting erupting in the wake of last year's coup.
>> See more: Inside Myanmar's enduring resistance movement
Escalating violence
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup last year, with swaths of the country engulfed by fighting.
Reports of the strikes come days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers will hold emergency talks to discuss strife-torn Myanmar ahead of November's Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders' summit.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has spearheaded so far fruitless efforts to resolve the crisis, and the bloc is frustrated by escalating human rights atrocities.
In September, at least 11 schoolchildren died in a military air strike and firing on a Myanmar village in northern Sagaing region.
The junta said it had sent troops in helicopters to Let Yet Kone after receiving a tip-off that fighters from the KIA and a local anti-coup militia were moving weapons in the area.
A number of Myanmar's myriad ethnic rebel groups have come out in support of the anti-coup movement, offering shelter and even training to activists.
Last May, the KIA said it downed a military helicopter gunship during fierce clashes near the town of Momauk in the country's far north.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since the coup and over 15,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
The junta blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of almost 3,900 civilians.
(AFP)
NEWS WIRES - Yesterday
Myanmar military air strikes on a concert held by a major ethnic rebel group killed around 50 people and wounded 70, the rebels said on Monday.
Scores killed in Myanmar military air strikes on ethnic rebel group© AFP - STR
"Around 8:40 pm (2:40pm GMT) Sunday, two Myanmar military jets attacked" a ceremony the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was holding, Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.
"Around 50 people were killed including KIA members and civilians," he said, adding that around 70 were wounded.
Local media reported that up to 60 soldiers and civilians had been killed.
Images shared by local media purported to show the aftermath, with debris littering the ground.
The United Nation's office in Myanmar said it was "deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes that took place in Hpakant, Kachin State".
"Initial reports suggest that over 100 civilians may have been affected by the bombing," it said in a statement.
"Numerous fatalities have also been reported," it added.
A junta spokesman did not respond to request for comment.
The US Embassy in Yangon said it was "following reports of a military airstrike targeting a Kachin gathering resulting in the deaths of a large number of civilians".
The KIA has clashed regularly with the military for decades, with heavy fighting erupting in the wake of last year's coup.
>> See more: Inside Myanmar's enduring resistance movement
Escalating violence
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup last year, with swaths of the country engulfed by fighting.
Reports of the strikes come days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers will hold emergency talks to discuss strife-torn Myanmar ahead of November's Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders' summit.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has spearheaded so far fruitless efforts to resolve the crisis, and the bloc is frustrated by escalating human rights atrocities.
In September, at least 11 schoolchildren died in a military air strike and firing on a Myanmar village in northern Sagaing region.
The junta said it had sent troops in helicopters to Let Yet Kone after receiving a tip-off that fighters from the KIA and a local anti-coup militia were moving weapons in the area.
A number of Myanmar's myriad ethnic rebel groups have come out in support of the anti-coup movement, offering shelter and even training to activists.
Last May, the KIA said it downed a military helicopter gunship during fierce clashes near the town of Momauk in the country's far north.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since the coup and over 15,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
The junta blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of almost 3,900 civilians.
(AFP)
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