Myanmar airstrikes: Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on two villages largely inhabited by Karen residents, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, and two churches were destroyed, two relief organizations said Friday. According to the Karen Women’s Organization and the Free Burma Rangers, the pastor of a Baptist church, a Catholic deacon and laymen of a church were among those killed in the airstrike.
Another woman and her child were injured in another village, he said. The Karen, who live largely in the eastern part of Myanmar along the border with Thailand, are one of the most established ethnic minority rebel forces and have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from the central government.
Fighting escalated after February 2021, when the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The airstrikes are killing civilians and destroying homes, medical centers, churches, schools, libraries and monasteries,” the Karen women’s group said in a statement.
army suppressed peaceful protest
The army used lethal force to suppress peaceful protests against its takeover, which triggered armed resistance by pro-democracy forces that joined hands with some ethnic rebel groups, including the Karen.
The military-installed government then launched an offensive into the countryside to try to secure the area, using airstrikes and burning villages.
The National Unity Government, an underground group that calls itself the country’s legitimate government and acts as an umbrella organization for opponents of military rule, said in a statement this week that since the army takeover, “460 Innocent civilians, mostly children, have lost their lives. Lives are lost due to the repeated airstrikes (of the army).”
The Free Burma Rangers said their volunteers watched from afar as jets carried out two bombing raids on Thursday on Le Wah, also known as Papun, one of the villages attacked in Muttrah district of Karen state.
He said volunteers arrived in Le Wah after dark, where five people were killed and churches destroyed.
The villages of Le Wah and Pankhi Lah were bombed.
“The first thing we saw at the edge of the village was a buffalo with its front half leg wriggling in agony and we saw shrapnel-damaged houses and roofs flying,” the group said in a statement.
According to a Karen women’s group, the other bombed village was Paw Khie Lah, where a woman and child were injured. Because the Karen villagers have become accustomed to living with the war, they conduct many daily activities in the forest, such as schooling.
Free Burma Rangers issued a statement
The Free Burma Rangers statement said that if the students were in their village classroom they would all have died as the structure was completely destroyed. The bombing in Karen State was the second reported airstrike by the Myanmar military this week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday in western Myanmar’s Chin state, military planes bombed the headquarters of the Chin National Front, another ethnic rebel militia closely linked to the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Chin National Front spokesman Salai Htet Ni said in a text message that five members of the Chin National Army were killed on Tuesday. He said Wednesday’s bomb blast damaged a clinic and other buildings in the camp.
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resistance force against army
Resistance forces in Myanmar have been able to prevent the military from taking firm control of large areas of the country, but have a major disadvantage in weaponry, especially in countering airstrikes.
Many Western countries have already imposed arms embargoes on the military government, but activists also advocate banning or limiting the sale of aviation fuel to Myanmar to reduce the military’s advantage in air power.