PPST condemns junta airstrikes on Sagaing Region village

By Admin 22 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
22 April 2023, Sittwe

Seven signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) have condemned junta airstrikes on Pazigyi Village in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township on April 11, which killed more than 180 people.

The Peace Process Steering Committee (PPST), made up of most signatories to the NCA, issued a statement on April 21 condemning any use of force that could harm civilians, including the Sagaing incident.

“We oppose this kind of political crisis caused by using force and weapons to harm the public because it is against the principles of the PPST,” said PPST spokesman Colonel Saw Kyaw Nyunt.

A total of 186 people were reportedly killed and many more were injured in the junta’s aerial assault on Pazigyi Village, which targeted a community gathering to celebrate the opening of an administrative office for the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s anti-regime government in exile. 

Dozens of children were killed and among the injured, 19 people, including an 8-year-old child, are reportedly receiving major medical treatment.

Junta spokesman Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun has said that those killed in the airstrikes were members of the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF), not civilians, and that the large number of casualties was the result of a “terrorist” weapons cache exploding during the operation.

NUG Minister of Defence U Yee Mon last week said that the opening ceremony for the public administration office in Pazigyi Village was not a military gathering.

“Pazigyi Village was known not to be a military target, but the military deliberately bombed and killed a village that did not accept their rule,” he added.

U Pe Than, a political analyst, applauded the PPST’s condemnation of the incident.

“The war crimes of the military junta were seen by the whole world,” he said. “It is the most brutal crime in the history of military rule. Regarding the military’s airstrikes, every humanitarian organisation, regardless of party organisation, should condemn it. Therefore, it can be said that the PPST’s condemnation of the airstrikes is in line with the wishes of the world and Myanmar people.”

The PPST will hold talks with ethnic armed groups and political forces that have not signed the NCA to solve the current political crisis in Myanmar.

The junta, which faces multiple military fronts, is relying to a large extent on air operations due to widespread armed resistance across the country.

There were 125 airstrikes between February 2021 and January 2022, a number that increased to 301 between February 2022 and January 2023, according to a report released in March by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.