Source: Amnesty International –
Responding to reports of an aerial attack by the Myanmar military that is said to have killed upwards of 20 civilians, including children, when multiple bombs were dropped from motorized paragliders, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said:
“The sickening reports emerging from the ground in central Myanmar following a nighttime attack late on Monday should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection.
“The international community may have forgotten about the conflict in Myanmar, but the Myanmar military is taking advantage of reduced scrutiny to carry out war crimes with impunity.
“It continues to kill civilians on a daily basis, using methods such as motorized paragliders, a disturbing trend that Amnesty International has documented in the same area that this attack occurred.
“This would be the latest in a long line of attacks that stretch back almost five years to the start of the 2021 military coup. As the military attempts to solidify power with a stage-managed election later this year, it is intensifying an already brutal campaign against pockets of resistance.
“As it prepares to convene later this month, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must increase pressure on the junta and revise an approach that has failed the Myanmar people for almost five years, since the coup deposed the country’s democratically elected government. The UN Security Council should also refer the situation in Myanmar as a whole to the International Criminal Court.”