The Karen National Union (KNU) accused the Myanmar regime of using widely banned cluster bombs to attack civilian targets including a school in Kawkareik township, Karen State, on Monday, killing three young schoolchildren and a teacher.
Local residents confirmed the attack, saying a junta jet fighter dropped a cluster bomb on Paingyak village on the outskirts of Kawkareik town on Monday afternoon.
While fighting has been ranging between junta troops and Karen resistance forces between Kawkareik and Kyondoe towns since April, Paingyak village is far from the battle zone, located on the border of Kawkareik and Mon State’s Kyaikmayaw township, the residents said.
“The village is far from the clash sites. The aircraft bombed the village despite there being no fighting here or any resistance groups,” a local villager said.
The KNU’s Dooplaya District authority said that three schoolchildren from Grades 1 to 2 and aged from 6 to 8 were killed along with their 40-year-old teacher while they were studying at the village’s makeshift school. A 65-year-old male villager was also killed in the airstrike.
Another 22 villagers including 18 schoolchildren suffered injuries while 10 civilian houses and a monastery building were damaged in the attack.
The KNU said that the regime has intentionally been bombing non-military targets, including hospitals, schools, religious sites and other civilian buildings.
On May 28, junta jet fighters also dropped two bombs on a school dormitory in Kwileisu Village, which is under KNU control in Kawkareik township, Karen State, injuring four teenage students.
Three days earlier, a regime warplane dropped two bombs on a civilian wedding reception in resistance-held Kyunkyi Village in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi township, killing 12 people including the bride and injuring 37 people, according to the KNU.
The regime also reportedly used the widely banned cluster bombs to attack O Htein village school in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region on May 12, killing 22 schoolchildren aged seven to 16 and two volunteer teachers in their early 20s. A total of 102 others, mostly students, were injured.
Globally, a total of 111 states have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions that prohibits the use of cluster munitions. Although Myanmar is not a signatory to the convention, the targeting of schools or civilian targets constitutes a war crime and is a violation of international humanitarian law.
