Bangkok (EFE) bloodiest attack by the military regime on record since the coup on February 1, 2021.
This was stated today on its Twitter account by the Ministry of Human Rights of the Government of National Unity (NUG), which proclaims itself the legitimate authority of Burma and which was the target of the bombing, which occurred on Tuesday during the inauguration of one of its administrative offices. in Pazigyi, a town of about 3,800 inhabitants in Sagaing, one of the rebel strongholds in Burma.
A NUG spokesman assured EFE that clinics in the area run by the civil disobedience movement that emerged after the coup raised the figure to 168 deaths, warning of the difficulty of counting due to the mutilation of the corpses.
A crowd drawn by food
According to what a survivor of the attack told EFE, Army planes (Tatmadaw) “threw a bomb directly at the crowd. When I bent down and looked behind me, there were children of 3, 5, 7 years old…”.
For his part, the NUG spokesman indicated that after the first air attack against the inauguration of his office, a ceremony that attracted many women and children by offering food to the neighbors, there was another bombardment on Tuesday afternoon, while the volunteers were trying to to find survivors.
The escalation of violence responds to the proclamation of the leader of the coup junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, on March 27, on the occasion of Armed Forces Day.
In that act, the military official warned that he would “firmly appease” the resistance, focusing on the NUG and its armed wing, the forces for the defense of the people (PDF).
While the NUG was formed at first by former deputies of the civilian legislature that was overthrown after the coup, the PDF were nourished shortly after above all by young people who left their lives and professions behind to stand up to the Army, and have gradually increased their warfare skills in an unexpected twist for the Tatmadaw, which only manages to control a quarter of the country.
international condemnation
The international community, including the US, the European Union and the UN, on Wednesday condemned the attack in Sagaing, while today the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Myanmar and nine other countries belong. area.
The NUG Ministry of Human Rights urges today on Twitter for “punitive measures (against the military regime) to be taken, including a global ban on the sale and transfer of arms and aviation fuel to the junta (…), as well as the involvement of the International Criminal Court”.
The UN denounced in March that more than 3,000 civilians have been killed, 1.3 million have had to flee their homes and 16,000 have become political prisoners since the coup, including the de facto leader of the ousted government, Aung San Suu Kyi. , ending a decade of democratic transition and plunging the country into a spiral of violence and semi-anarchy.