The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has rejected Myanmar junta’s denial of involvement in a massacre at a Kachin State displacement camp as “pure propaganda”.
At least 29 people, including 13 children, died at Mung Lai Hkyet village in Waingmaw Township on Monday night. The site is about 3km north of Laiza, where the KIA has its headquarters. The ethnic armed group is fighting the junta.
The junta said on Wednesday that a KIA warehouse containing more than100 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and weapons exploded while all other sources blamed a regime airstrike, drones or shelling.
KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that a gunpowder warehouse would never be located near civilians. “It is pure propaganda,” he said.
Mung Lai Hkyet had more than 600 – mostly displaced – residents.
The colonel said a KIA investigation had determined the junta had either used a high-tech drone or a fleet of drones carrying highly explosive bombs.
“The investigation team found pieces of the bombs and they are examining them,” he said.
He earlier said no aircraft had been heard.
Laiza residents reported their windows shattering with the blast and camp residents said some blast craters were six meters deep.
In October last year, junta aircraft bombed an outdoor concert at A’Nang Pa village in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization, killing at least 75 people.
Monday’s attack came 13 days before the first anniversary of the A’Nang Pa massacre.
