The Burmese military on Sunday launched airstrikes on a music festival hosted by an ethnic minority group in northern Kachin State, killing at least 50 civilians and injuring 100 more, according to local reports.
Two Kachin singers and a keyboard player were among those who were killed.
KIO’s spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu said the military regime in Burma (also known as Myanmar) had deliberately launched airstrikes on Hpakant to target civilians rather than the KIO army.
“There was no fighting that had broken out between us and the military,” Naw Bu told Myanmar Now. “They bombed the event on purpose knowing that there were many civilians there. This is inhumane and a war crime.”
Zay Thu Aung, an air force pilot who defected after the military coup in February last year, said the military jets used in the raid were likely Russian-made Yak-130 model aircraft.
‘Ruthless Disregard’
International human rights groups condemned the attack and demanded that Burmese authorities provide immediate medical treatment to those injured in the attack.The United Nations said that over 100 civilians may have been affected by the attack.
Hana Young, the deputy regional director for Amnesty International, said the attack appeared to fit “a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks” by the military that has targeted civilians in areas controlled by armed groups.
Amnesty International urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to ramp up measures to call the military to cease its escalating repression amid the upcoming ASEAN high-level meetings.
“[The Burmese military] has been able to carry out these crimes in the face of an ineffective international response to a human rights crisis that is only worsening,” Young said.
The military junta led by top general Min Aung Hlaing ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government in a military coup in February last year, sparking widespread anti-coup protests in Burma.