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Myanmar military helicopter attack on populated village kills 5 people

January 7, 2022/in News

Sources said the military fired indiscriminately into the village in response to a militia attack the day before. Military attacks in Myanmar’s Sagaing region killed at least 15 people this week, including four siblings aged 5-26 who died when a missile fired from a helicopter struck their home, sources said. The two Mi-35 attack helicopters […]

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA CONDEMNING HUN SEN’S SUPPORT OF THE MYANMAR MILITARY JUNTA

January 4, 2022/in Press Releases and Statements

4 January 2022 We, the undersigned civil society organizations of Myanmar and Cambodia, strongly condemn Hun Sen for supporting the criminal military junta in Myanmar and demand an urgent coordinated international response to immediately halt the junta’s campaign of terror. The Myanmar military junta has been using extreme violence to terrorize the people across the […]

Myanmar military helicopter attack on populated village kills 5 people

January 7, 2022/in News

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA CONDEMNING HUN SEN’S SUPPORT OF THE MYANMAR MILITARY JUNTA

January 4, 2022/in Press Releases and Statements

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Myanmar military helicopter attack on populated village kills 5 people

January 7, 2022/in News

Sources said the military fired indiscriminately into the village in response to a militia attack the day before.

Military attacks in Myanmar’s Sagaing region killed at least 15 people this week, including four siblings aged 5-26 who died when a missile fired from a helicopter struck their home, sources said.

The two Mi-35 attack helicopters on Jan. 4 launched six rockets and fired machine guns into Gahe village, part of Indaw township in Sagaing, a northwestern region that has been a hotbed of resistance to the military regime that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government nearly a year ago.

The attack on Gahe was the first time the military used heavy weapons against the village, a resident of Gahe village, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“Our village was a peaceful place and they attacked us for no reason,” she said

“We used to go out and watch the planes when they passed by, but now we wouldn’t dare doing anything like that. One of the helicopters shot explosive rockets at us and the other used a machine gun,” she said.

Of the six rockets fired into the village, five exploded. The attack killed four siblings aged 5, 9, 13 and 26, and a 30-year-old woman.

Only the body of the 30-year-old could be buried properly. The bodies of the siblings could not be recovered. They died when one of the rockets exploded in their house and it burned to the ground with them inside, sources said.

Additionally, one of the five people wounded in the attack was a child who fled into the jungle and has not yet received medical treatment, they said.

Sources estimate that 800 people from Gahe and the surrounding villages have been displaced due to fighting between the military and local militias, called People’s Defense Forces (PDF), who oppose the military’s ousting of Myanmar’s democratically elected government almost a year ago.

In addition to the five deaths in Gahe, another 10 people were killed on Thursday in Kalay township, which is located in the western part of Sagaing on the border with India, when they returned to their villages after fighting there had seemingly died down, sources said.

“The people returned to the village believing the situation had cooled down. Then the soldiers came back all of the sudden and shot everyone they saw and at least 10 were killed,” a resident of Kalay told RFA.

Only two of the people killed in the attack have been identified, and the bodies have not yet been recovered. Nearly 10 houses in nearby Ingyun and Hakha Lay villages were also reported to have been set on fire Thursday.

After the attack in Gahe, the military continued conducting operations near the village and were still firing heavy weapons in the surrounding area, another resident of Gahe told RFA on condition of anonymity.

“I think they attacked our village thinking there were PDF members in the village. There are no PDFers here,” she said.

“This kind of thing has happened before in Htigyaing. We heard about 70 people lost their lives there” she said, referring to a township adjacent to Indaw.

Many villagers fled their homes and took refuge in monasteries in Nar Naung and Kyawywar villages, another villager told RFA.

“Some villagers have gone to be with their relatives but most of us are in monasteries because the soldiers came into the village the other day and spent the night there,” she said.

“When we left the village, we heard gunfire and small explosions. We were all scared and went to the monastery to take shelter,” she said.

One day prior to the helicopter attack, PDF members attacked two military vehicles about 10 miles away from Gahe.

RFA tried to contact Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military junta, but he did not respond.

Airstrikes against villages have happened frequently over the past year, an officer with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed group that has been fighting the military since before the coup, mostly in nearby Kachin State, told RFA.

“The armed clash occurred outside the village, not inside the village, but the army just fired back without knowing the target, and the villagers had to suffer,” Col. Naw Bu said.

“The Sagaing region is close to us. Our No. 26 Battalion is in the area. When there are movements in the area, there is some kind of confrontation. So, when that happens, they use airstrikes,” he said.

Naw Bu said that the KIA has not launched attacks in the Sagaing region but has retaliated against military action in Kachin state. The military usually responds with airstrikes, he said.

According to data compiled by RFA based on statements by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), there were 597 armed clashes in Sagaing region in the five months from June to November 2021, and a total of 274 civilians and 1,137 junta soldiers were killed over the same period.

The number of civilians killed by both sides in Sagaing through early December 2021 totaled at least 414, based on NUG monthly statements and reports from local media.

According to the Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, more than 75,250 people have been displaced by clashes in Sagaing region in the nine months from the coup until the end of October.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

RFA News

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA CONDEMNING HUN SEN’S SUPPORT OF THE MYANMAR MILITARY JUNTA

January 4, 2022/in Press Releases and Statements

4 January 2022

We, the undersigned civil society organizations of Myanmar and Cambodia, strongly condemn Hun Sen for supporting the criminal military junta in Myanmar and demand an urgent coordinated international response to immediately halt the junta’s campaign of terror.

The Myanmar military junta has been using extreme violence to terrorize the people across the country since its attempted coup on 1 February 2021. The people of Myanmar continue to resist strongly, succeeding at pushing back the military junta who has failed to gain effective control of the country after eleven months. Yet, the junta continues to commit inhumane acts of violence especially in ethnic areas – amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

As of today, 1,398 people have been killed, including at least 100 children and 11,328 people have been illegally detained according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Those in detention face torture, murder, and deprivation of food and water. Women have been raped and gang-raped inside and outside prison. Properties have been robbed and destroyed by junta soldiers. Since February, over 280,000 civilians have been internally displaced. Towns and villages have been burned or blown away by artillery shelling and airstrikes. Medical facilities and medical workers have been attacked. Humanitarian aid has been blocked and destroyed, unable to reach those desperately in need of assistance.

Recently on 24 December 2021, the junta arrested approximately 40 innocent villagers near Moso Village in the western part of Hpruso Township in Karenni State including women and children, put them in vehicles while their hands tied behind their backs and burned them alive. Similar massacres took place at Dontaw Village in Salingyi Township in Sagaing Region on 7 December, where 11 civilians were burned to death. Before this, the junta massacred at least 40 civilians over four different inhumane incidents in Kani Township, Sagaing Region in July.

While the atrocities were being committed in Karenni State, since 15 December, the terrorist junta has started shelling using heavy weaponry at Lay Kay Kaw and surrounding areas in Karen State and later with the use of airstrikes – jets bombing the area indiscriminately. This has displaced more than 10,000 innocent civilians, half of whom fled to Thailand to take refuge. Some Thai villagers also had to relocate, as some houses on the Thai side of the border were destroyed by the Myanmar junta’s artillery shelling.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new Hyatt Regency Hotel in Phnom Penh on 15 December 2021, Hun Sen publicly revealed that his highest priority in 2022 while Cambodia serves as chair of ASEAN is to support the return of Myanmar to fully functioning member of ASEAN under the illegal military junta. Hun Sen plans to visit Myanmar on 7 January 2022, for talks with the leader of the murderous junta, Min Aung Hlaing – a move that would only serve to embolden the military junta to continue their campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar. Hun Sen’s plan to act unilaterally in addressing the multidimensional crisis in Myanmar is utterly insufficient, as Hun Sen should know well from the Cambodian experience. Ending the Khmer Rouge required a concerted international and UN response, it was not left in the hands of only one man.

The escalating violence being committed by the junta against the people of Myanmar amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes, amidst an ongoing genocide against the Rohingya since 2017. Hun Sen must not condone and applaud such inhumane acts and should know well of the pain and immense suffering of genocide on a nation, given the millions of Cambodian people who were victims and survivors of genocide committed by the tyrannical Khmer Rouge. Hun Sen must not lend legitimacy to the genocidal junta, and he must not forget the suffering of millions of Cambodians who faced genocide.

Hun Sen reiterated that a solution for Myanmar cannot be achieved without negotiating with those who are currently in power, but ultimately power lies with the people of Myanmar who have declared in the strongest terms that they have no desire to see negotiations with this criminal military junta who are committing atrocity crimes.

Hun Sen referenced the Civil Disobedience Movement and the National Unity Government of Myanmar as guerrilla fighters or shadow government. The people of Myanmar hereby declare in the strongest terms that they take the utmost exception to his references and take them as the worst insult possible.

While ASEAN’s decision in October 2021 to exclude junta leader Min Aung Hlaing from the annual regional summit was unprecedented and a step in the right direction, ASEAN must take further decisive steps to resolve the intensifying crisis in Myanmar. The recent incidents of extreme violence in Karen and Karenni States and Sagaing Region clearly show there must be an urgent and stronger coordinated international response. We urge the UN, ASEAN, and international community at large to take concrete actions to end the junta’s campaign of terror against the people and hold them to account through international accountability mechanisms.

The root cause of the crisis in Myanmar is the military junta. It has caused not only immense suffering of the people of Myanmar but has also posed a threat to regional peace and stability. Hun Sen, ASEAN and the international community must realize that the Myanmar military junta has no genuine intention to comply with ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus and that ASEAN alone is ill-equipped to tackle the crisis in Myanmar.

ASEAN must recognize the legitimate government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government, work in coordination with the UN and the NUG and demand the military junta to immediately halt its terror campaign against the people. ASEAN’s credibility is at stake, and it must put effective pressure on the Myanmar military junta to end its relentless violence and support the people of Myanmar in their endeavor to establish a federal democracy.

In addition, ASEAN member states must cut all business ties with the Myanmar military junta and stop all programs and activities that lend legitimacy to the junta as these would be complicit in the junta’s crimes against humanity and war crimes.

ASEAN, as well as the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, that has backed the ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, must ensure that Hun Sen does not act alone in 2022 – lending legitimacy to the Myanmar military junta and further emboldening them to cause more harm to the people. This would be an insult to the people of Myanmar and Cambodia and further jeopardizing ASEAN’s already-diminishing credibility during the Cambodia tenure as chair of ASEAN in 2022. Human rights violations and atrocity crimes committed by Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing must be rectified and democracy and human rights must be restored to the peoples of Cambodia and Myanmar.

The people of Cambodia are in their own tireless struggle for full-fledged democracy and protection of human rights, currenting calling for free and fair elections in 2022. The people of Myanmar stand in solidarity with the people of Cambodia who want to overcome an oppressive authoritarian leader, who routinely denies and violates their human rights. The people of Myanmar categorically reject the terrorist military junta’s announced plan of elections in 2023 – just as they have been defiantly and categorically rejecting its bloody coup attempt for the past eleven months.

The undersigned CSOs from Myanmar declare in the strongest terms that Hun Sen is not welcome in Myanmar and the undersigned Cambodian CSOs declare that Hun Sen’s views are his own and do not represent the will of the Cambodian people.

For further information, please contact:

Aung Moe Win, Support the Democracy Movement in Burma, NYforBurmaDemocracy@gmail.com
Jan Jan Maran, Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy & US Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar, hmaran@gm4md.org
Tung Yap, Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy (CAHRAD), tung@cahrad.org
Wai Wai Nu, Women’s Peace Network, waiwainu@womenspeacenetwork.org

Signed by:

Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (Sydney)
Action Committee for Democracy Development
All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC)
All Burma Student Democratic Front – Australia Branch
All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA)
All Burma Monks’ Representative Committee (ABMRC)
All Young Burmese League (AYBL)
ALTSEAN-Burma
Anti Dictatorship in Burma – DC Metro Area
Anti-Myanmar Dictatorship Movement
Anti-Myanmar Military Dictatorship Network (AMMDN)
Arakan Rohingya Development Association – Australia Inc. (ARDA-Australia)
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)
Arakan Rohingya Union
Artists Against Tyranny
Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters-HRDP
Australia Burma Friendship Association, Northern Territory
Australia Karen Organization WA Inc.
Australia Myanmar DNF
Australia Myanmar Youth Alliance (AMYA)
Australian Burmese Muslim Organisation
Australian Chin Community (Eastern Melbourne Inc)
Australian Karen Organisation (AKO)
Australian Karen Organisation (AKO) Queensland
Bamar Community Tasmania
Better Burmese Health Care
Blood Money Campaign
Boston Free Burma
Burma Action Ireland
Burma Campaign UK
Burma Human Rights Network
Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC)
Burma Task Force
Burmese American Millennials
Burmese Canadian Network
Burmese Community (Australia)
Burmese Community Development Collaboration (BCDC)
Burmese Community Support Group-BCSG
Burmese Friendship Association
Burmese Medical Association Australia (BMAA)
Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan ( BRAJ)
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)
Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organization New Zealand
Burmese Women’s Union
Cambodian Americans and Friends for Democracy and Human Rights Advocates
Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy (CAHRAD)
Cambodian Australian Federation (CAF)
Campaign for a New Myanmar
Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative
Canberra Karen Association
Chin Community of Western Australia Inc.
Chin Community SA (Australia)
Chin Community Tasmania
Chin Leaders of Tomorrow
Chin Youth Organization
Citizens of Burma Award (New Zealand)
CRPH Funding Ireland
CRPH/NUG Support Group Australia
CRPH-NUG Supporters (Ireland)
Democracy for Burma
Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization -DPW
Democratic Youth Council
Equality Myanmar (EQMM)
European Karen Network (EKN)
European Rohingya Council (ERC)
Falam Community
Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group
Foundation of Khmer Samaki (FKSamaki)
Free Burma Coalition- Philippines
Freedom for Burma
Free Myanmar
Free Myanmar Campaign USA (Indianapolis, IN)
Free Rohingya Coalition
Freedom Justice Equality for Myanmar
Future Light Center
Future Thanlwin
General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD)
Global Myanmar Spring Revolution
Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Industrial Training Centre (ITC) Family Sydney
The Institution of Professional Engineers Myanmar
International Campaign for the Rohingya
International Society of Myanmar Scholars and Professionals
John VI Film
Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (JACDB)
Justice For Myanmar
Kachin Association Australia
Kachin Association of Australia WA Inc.
Kachin National Organization USA
Karen Community (Australia)
Karen Community Association UK
Karen Environment and Social Action Network
Karen Organization of America
Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN)
Karen Swedish Community (KSC)
Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)
Karenni Federation of Australia
Karenni Human Rights Group
Karenni/Kayah Community (Australia)
Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO)
Kayin Community Tasmania
Keng Tung Youth
Khmer Alliance Foundation
Khmer Association of Hampton Road Virginia (KAHRV)
Khmer People Network for Cambodia (KPNC)
La Communauté Birmane de France
Listen Up Myanmar
Los Angeles Myanmar Movement-LA2M
LGBT Alliance-Myanmar
Matu Chin Community (Austalia)
Me Boun Foundation
Metta Campaign Mandalay
Mindat Chin Community NSW
Mindat Community (Australia)
Mizo Community (Australia)
Mon Families Group (Australia)
Mon National Council (Australia)
Myanmar Buddhist Community of South Australia
Myanmar Community Coffs Harbour, Australia (MCC)
Myanmar Democracy and Peace Committee (Australia)
Myanmar Democratic Movement (MDM)
Myanmar Development Foundation
Myanmar Engineering Association of Australia (MEAA)
Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia ( MERHROM )
Myanmar Family Community Ireland
Myanmar Global Support Foundation (General Incorporated Association)
Myanmar Muslim Association Netherland
Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
Myanmar People Residing in Canberra
Myanmar Professionals Association Australia (MPAA)
Myanmar Students’ Association Australia (MSAA)
Myanmar Queer Straight Alliance
Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma (ND-Burma)
NLD Solidarity Association (Australia)
No Business With Genocide
Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
Olive Organization
People’s Hope Spring Revolution
Perth Myanmar Youth Network
Pro Démocratie pour le Cambodge du Canada (PDCC)
Progressive Voice
PWVB (Patriotic War Veterans of Burma)
Queensland Kachin Community (QKC)
Queensland Myanmar Youth Collective (QMYC)
Queensland Rohingya Community
Red Campaign Nirvana Exhortation Group
Remonya Association of WA (Mon Community)
Rohingya Action Ireland
Rohingya Human Rights Network
Rohingya Women Development Network
Rohingya Youth Association (RYA)
Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas
Save Myanmar (San Francisco)
Save Myanmar (USA)
Shan MATA
ShizuYouth for Myanmar
Shwe Youth Democratic Alliance (SYDA)
Sisters 2 Sisters
Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
Students For Free Burma (SFB)
Southcare Medical Centre
Southern Youth Development Organization
Support for Myanmar
Support Group for Democracy in Myanmar (Netherlands)
Support the Democracy Movement in Burma (SDMB)
Swedish Burma Committee
Swedish Rohingya Association (SRA)
Sydney Friends for Myanmar Unity
Ta’ang Women’s Organization
Ta’ang Legal Aid
Tanintharyi MATA
Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar
Union of Karenni State Youth
United Myanmar Community of South Australia
US Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar
US Campaign for Burma
Victorian Burmese Care Community (VBCC)
Victorian Myanmar Youth
We love Myanmar
We Pledge CDM (Australia)
Western Australia Myanmar Democratic Network
Women Activists Myanmar (WAM)
Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar (WAC-M)
Women’s League of Burma
Women’s Peace Network
Yadanar Foundation
Yangon Medical Network
Zo Community (Australia)
Zomi Association Australia Inc.
Zomi Community South Australia
Zomi Community Queensland

Supported by:

ANAKBAYAN Daly City
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Democracy Network
Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition
Association for the Advancement of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Vietnam (AAFORB-VN)
Blasian March
Boat People SOS
Campaign Committee for Human Rights (CCHR)
Campaign for Popular Democracy (CPD)
Clarity & Decency
Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA)
Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam
Initiatives for International Dialogue
Justice for All
League of Filipino Students SFSU
Milk Tea Alliance
Nguyen Van Ly Foundation
Peace and Human Rights Resource Center (PHRC)
The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD)
Resist US-Led War
Spirit in Education Movement (SEM)
Vietnam Coalition Against Torture

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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