Captured Myanmar junta pilot Major Khaing Thant Moe has admitted the military has conducted airstrikes on civilian targets such as hospitals, schools and IDP camps.
In a video issued by the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State, Thant Moe said his air force colleagues had carried out airstrikes on hospitals and schools in Hpruso and Demoso townships in Karenni (Kayah) State.
“They attacked IDP camps in Hpruso Township,” he said, naming the pilots concerned as Myo Thu and Major Naing Lin Aung.
The 43-year-old pilot was captured last month after his K-8W fighter jet crashed during a clash in Karenni State on Nov.11. He ejected from the plane along with his co-pilot, Lieutenant Zarni Htet Maung, and was arrested on Nov.19. His co-pilot is still missing.
Khaing Thant Moe has served at bases in Kachin State’s Myitkyina Township, Mandalay Region’s Meiktila Township and Bago Region’s Taungoo Township during his 20 years as a pilot in the air force. He admitted to conducting about 40 airstrikes in Myitkyina and Karenni State.
“Bombing attacks were carried out in the hills in Myitkyina. In Karenni State, I dropped bombs near Phaya Phyu [in Demoso Township],” he said in the video.
The Myanmar Air Force is notorious for a bloody campaign of airstrikes that has killed hundreds of civilians along with large numbers of resistance members across the country since the 2021 coup.
The air force carried out 902 airstrikes across Myanmar, killing at least 687 civilians, including children, between the coup and August this year, according to a report by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, which monitors junta atrocities.
Khaing Thant Moe is the first active-duty regime pilot to be arrested by resistance forces. He said he would be reunited with his family after he had acknowledged the crimes listed by the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force. He also apologized to the families of victims who were killed in airstrikes he conducted.
However, the families have expressed anger at his words, saying he should not be allowed to return to his own kin after destroying other families.
“He said he would accept his punishment,” said Thida Win, whose son was among six children killed by a targeted airstrike on the Let Yet Kone village school in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, in September last year.
“If so, his punishment should be to suffer like we have suffered,” she said, adding that Khaing Thant Moe was only seeking to protect himself.
“These airstrikes were carried out with purpose,” she told The Irrawaddy.
The military is now focusing airstrikes on civilian targets in northern Shan State and other hotbeds of the expanding resistance offensive.
On Tuesday, six military fighter jets dropped bombs on civilians’ houses in Sagaing Region’s Tigyaing Township, where intense fighting between junta troops and resistance forces is ongoing. Casualties from the airstrike are still unknown.
