Myanmar’s junta has once again revealed its true attitude toward the people of the country by escalating aerial bombardments of civilian targets instead of conducting proper rescue and rehabilitation operations for flood-hit areas across the country.
Nine of Myanmar’s 15 states and regions suffered severe flooding and landslides after heavy rain triggered by Typhoon Yagi in the second week of September.
The official death toll from the natural disaster rose to 419 this week.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing admitted that his regime had not expected such severe rainfall.
“Flood alerts were issued but no disaster plan appears to have been in place,” the junta boss confessed at a regime disaster management meeting on Sept. 17.
Despite his surprise, the junta chief continued bombing civilians in territory lost to resistance forces, even as over half of the country suffered deadly floods and landslides.
The Irrawaddy’s records show the Myanmar military has conducted over 40 airstrikes on resistance-controlled areas in the 27 days since Sept. 1, killing 180 people. The victims included dozens of children, and also regime personnel held captive by resistance forces.
Since early September, when Min Aung Hlaing vowed to reclaim territory liberated by resistance groups, regime warplanes and helicopter gunships have been bombarding civilian targets including towns, schools, hotels, relief camps, villages and detention centers almost daily.
Former captain Zin Yaw, who defected from the army after the 2021 coup, said the regime was now openly and deliberately targeting civilian areas in towns, cities, and villages controlled by resistance groups with relentless aerial barrages.
The airstrikes are intended to disrupt resistance rehabilitation and governance efforts. The junta also aims to turn resistance-held territories into an uninhabitable no-man’s land, Zin Yaw explained.
“In military terms, airstrikes cannot reclaim lost territory. The junta’s bombing campaign amounts to nothing more than destruction and the intentional killing of civilians,” the former army captain said.
Nada Al-Nashif, the UN’s deputy high commissioner for human rights, stated at the 57th session of the Human Rights Council on Tuesday that regime air and artillery strikes have killed scores of civilians in villages and IDP camps, violating international human rights and humanitarian law.
Meanwhile, over the border, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) has deployed its helicopters, aircraft and drones to drop food and medicine to flood-hit communities across Thailand. RTAF helicopters even dropped food parcels to people trapped on rooftops in the Myanmar border town of Tachileik.
In contrast, junta officials have threatened to arrest charity groups aiding flood victims under the counterterrorism law, fearing their aid could reach villages under resistance control.
Min Aung Hlaing has also called for hundreds of thousands of flood victim sheltering in camps and relatives’ houses to be sent home in time for the population census, scheduled for Oct. 1-15. The census will be used to compile voter lists for an election the regime plans to hold next year. The election plan has been widely dismissed as a sham aimed at cementing military rule.
The lack of a state-level emergency response plan in Myanmar has led to over 400 deaths – surpassing the 260 fatalities reported in Vietnam, which was hit directly by the typhoon. Neighboring Thailand has reported only 42 flood-related deaths while Laos has recorded just four. Both countries bore the brunt of typhoon rains before they reached Myanmar.
Floods triggered by Typhoon Yagi have also left over 800,000 people displaced in Myanmar.
Many parts of the country are now suffering follow-up flooding as monsoon rain continues to fall. Local volunteers and charity groups are conducting rehabilitation operations in flood-affected areas on a self-help basis. Rescue groups expect the flood death toll to rise further.
“They [the junta] are not concerned about the suffering caused by the disaster. Their only interest lies in conducting a population census and holding an election. The junta is openly and completely neglecting the pain of the people,” Zin Yaw said.
