The junta is increasingly unleashing air strikes against civilians, with the number more than doubling during the second year after the February 2021 coup, a report released yesterday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOCHR) said.
The air strikes have repeatedly been combined with “measures that systemically deny the ability of those injured to access medical care,” UNOCHR’s annual report on the situation of human rights in Myanmar said.
The junta’s military launched 988 air strikes nationwide between February 2021 and July 2023, the report said.
The junta’s use of air strikes surged between April 2022 and July 2023 July, the report added, noting that 687 air strikes had occurred during this period. That figure is more than double the 301 air strikes the junta unleashed between February 2021 and March 2022.
A minimum of 281 people have been killed in the air strikes, UNOCHA said.
The air strikes are “instilling terror in the civilian population” and “they now reasonably fear they could be bombed in their homes, at schools, hospitals, and religious buildings and at public gatherings,” the report said.
In May, Myanmar research non-profit Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica reported a far higher number of air strikes by the military junta. The junta hit resistance strongholds with at least 1,427 air strikes between 2021 and April 2023, killing at least 634 civilians in six states and four regions, it said. Nearly 90 percent of air strikes occurred in Sagaing Region and Karen, Kayah, Kachin, Chin and Shan states, the research non-profit reported.
The UNOCHR report noted a shift in areas targeted by air strikes. Between February 2021 and March 2022 most of the air strikes targeted Kachin, Kayah and Karen states. Between April 2022 and July 2023, air strikes increased in central regions: 331 of the 687 air strikes hit central Myanmar during this period.
The report said the number of air strikes in central regions rise 324 percent—from 78 to 331—in its two reporting periods.
Sagaing Region alone accounted for 258 of the 331 air strikes, equivalent to 39 percent of the total nationwide during the period.
The report said the Pa Zi Gyi airstrike had the highest death toll in one incident since the coup. It occurred on April 11, 2023 when the junta launched an airstrike on a public gathering in the village of Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township, killing 150 people.
An airstrike on Nyaung Kone Village, in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on June 27, 2023 killed 10 civilians, while an airstrike on A Nang Pa Village in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township on 2022 October 22, 2022 resulted in a minimum of 42 casualties, including 14 civilians.
The report has detailed the junta military’s mass killings during ground operations, arson attacks and other war crimes.
Citing its previous reports and a UN Security Council resolution, UNOCHR called for an end to all violence and for unhindered humanitarian access to every part of Myanmar.
It also called on all parties to respect and ensure respect for international human rights law and where applicable, fully comply with international humanitarian law, particularly norms relevant to the protection of civilians and people incapable of combat.
The UNOCHR’s report counted air strikes until July of this year, but they have become an almost daily experience in different states and regions since then.
On Monday, a junta jet dropped two 500 pound bombs on an outpost of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in northern Shan State’s Muse Township.
On Tuesday, a junta combat helicopter targeted three villages in Sagaing Region’s Chaung U Township, killing at least six civilians.
