Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing praised the Myanmar military’s artillery forces, which have committed numerous war crimes since the coup, as the artillery corps turned 75 on Saturday.
At an event to mark its 75th anniversary in Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing said he was proud that the army’s artillery corps had been able to fulfill its duty of striking targets with “total precision” whenever and wherever necessary.
The artillery can “stand tall among its international peers as a modern artillery,” the junta boss added.
The same day, two civilians including a child were killed in separate artillery strikes in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township.
The artillery corps of Myanmar’s army has no less blood on its hands than the air force, being responsible for countless civilian casualties and massive civilian property damage.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 434 civilians were killed nationwide between the 2021 coup and September 2023. Sagaing Region in central Myanmar has suffered the most with 138 fatalities during the period.
A total of 206 people died at the hands of the regime in January, 69 of whom were killed by artillery strikes, the AAPP reported.
The Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies, which carried out the anti-regime offensive Operation 1027 in northern Shan State and Rakhine State, said on Dec. 3 that some 150 people were killed by air and artillery strikes from the launch of Operation 1027 on Oct. 27 through Dec. 2.
Civilian casualties are believed to be higher as the regime has stepped up air and artillery strikes since then, especially in Rakhine State, as there have been fewer clashes in northern Shan State due to a China-brokered ceasefire.
The army’s artillery corps has performed brilliantly in crushing the insurgents, said Min Aung Hlaing at Saturday’s event, failing to mention that it has carried out deliberate and unprovoked strikes on civilian targets for a variety of reasons, not only to instill fear in the civilian population, but also to deter—or in retaliation for—resistance attacks.
To ensure they are comparable with their counterparts around the world, Min Aung Hlaing said he is equipping the corps’ units with modern artillery, ammunition and equipment, and also sending artillery soldiers to study abroad.
Despite his claims, the junta boss has himself lamented at least three times that junta troops were outgunned in northern Shan State by ethnic rebel armies, who possess superior technology.
The regime has lost mountains of weapons including howitzers in Operation 1027 and subsequent anti-regime offensives.
Three years into the coup, the regime has lost over 30 towns to the resistance, and Min Aung Hlaing has been forced to extend the state of emergency five times, thus earning criticism even from military sympathizers.
