Shillong, April 12: The ruling junta in Myanmar has confirmed that it carried out an airstrike on a village on Tuesday that resulted in the deaths of at least 100 people, many of them children.
The crowd gathered outside Pazigyi hamlet in Kanbalu township of the Sagaing region to witness the opening of a local office of the nation’s opposition movement.
At around 8 am on Tuesday, a witness said that a fighter plane dropped bombs directly upon a crowd of about 150 people. He added that those killed included leaders of locally organised anti-government armed groups and other opposition organisations, as well as women and 20 to 30 children.
On Tuesday night, the Myanmar junta confirmed the strike and claimed responsibility, “We attacked that place” According to a military government official, the People’s Defense Force office opening ceremony took place in Pazi Gyi village on Tuesday morning at around 8 am. The National Unity Government, which identifies itself as the nation’s legitimate government and stands in opposition to the army, has an armed branch called the People’s Defence Force.
The spokesperson claimed that although “there could be some people with civilian clothing,” some of those slain were anti-coup combatants in uniform.
The military’s campaign of violence against the people of Myanmar was strongly condemned by the United Nations, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeating his call to end the campaign of violence against the people of Myanmar. Those “violent acts”, according to US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel, highlight the regime’s contempt for human life and its responsibility for the severe political and humanitarian crises in the nation.