Myanmar’s military has admitted responsibility for the devastating air strike in the Sagaing area of northwest Myanmar, which killed up to 100 people, including children.
The military says it targeted a village meeting organised by its insurgency opponents this week, and that people who were murdered were forced to join the “terrorists.
Late on Tuesday, Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told military broadcast channel Myawaddy that the attack on the National Unity Government’s (NUG) celebration for their armed People’s Defence Force was aimed at restoring peace and stability in the region.
“During that opening ceremony, we conducted the attack. PDF members were killed. They are the ones opposing the government of the country, the people of the country,” said Zaw Min Tun.
“According to our ground information we hit the place of their weapons’ storage and that exploded and people died due to that,” he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the air attack in Sagaing and called for those responsible to be held accountable, his spokesperson said, adding that Guterres “reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country”.
U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Turk condemned the attack in a message before the junta’s comment was widely reported, saying it “appears schoolchildren performing dances, as well as other civilians … were among the victims”.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup ended a decade of tentative reform that included rule by a civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Some opponents of military rule have taken up arms, in places joining ethnic minority insurgents, and the military has responded with air strikes and heavy weapons, including in civilian areas.
Myanmar’s lightly armed opposition fighters have no effective defences against the military’s air force.
In October, a military jet attacked a concert, killing at least 50 civilians, singers and members of an ethnic minority insurgent force in Kachin State in the north.
Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the NUG, said it believed nearly 100 people were killed in the Tuesday attack calling it “another senseless, barbaric, brutal attack by the military”.
The military disputes claims that it killed innocent citizens and insists that it is battling “terrorists” out to undermine the nation.
For the majority of the last 60 years, it has controlled Myanmar, claiming to be the only organization capable of keeping the varied nation united.
