A young victim of an air strike on a school building in Depeyin township in Myanmar’s northwest Sagaing region, a day after an attack on the village by a Myanmar military helicopter, on Sep 17, 2022 (Photo: AFP/UCAN files)
By UCA News reporter
Sep 12 2023
A rebel group in Myanmar has urged the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies to impose more effective sanctions against the ruling junta following another attack on a school that killed 5 people.
The latest junta air strike on Sept. 7 killed four students aged 14-16 years and a 56-year-old male teacher in southeastern Karen state. Five other students aged 9-16 years and a 24-year-old female teacher were also injured, the Karen National Union (KNU) said.
The group claimed three air strikes were reported from villages in Karen state leading to the destruction of a boarding school, a village church and ten civilian homes.
“The junta has been conducting air strikes arbitrarily against civilians and committing war crimes brazenly. Therefore, we urge the UN, ASEAN and the international justice mechanism for more effective sanctions,” the KNU’s central committee said in a Sept.11 statement.
The KNU, the oldest major ethnic armed group in the Southeast Asian nation, has been providing support to and sheltering anti-junta protesters in Karen state, which lies along Myanmar’s border with Thailand, since the 2021 military coup.
Intense fighting continues between the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the junta’s forces.
The junta is often accused of targeting schools, churches, medical clinics and civilian homes during airstrikes and artillery shelling.
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) in a statement on Sept. 9 claimed over 37 education institutions were damaged or destroyed in 24 attacks in Karen state since the military coup.
The use of school buildings by junta forces and non-state militias for military purposes reportedly rose in 2022. More than 510 cases were reported that year compared with some 450 the previous year, according to reports.
The latest attack on a school came two days ahead of the United Nations marking International Day to Protect Education from Attacks on Sept.9.
“Attacks on students, teachers, educational personnel and schools are becoming all too common, cruelly disrupting young learners’ education and inflicting untold psychological and physical damage that can last a lifetime,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
A UN report released in June 2023 cited 105 attacks on schools and hospitals in 2022, most of them reported from Sagaing in central Myanmar, Kayin state in the southeast and Kayah state in the northeast. It attributed 66 of those attacks to armed forces, 26 to unidentified perpetrators and 13 to people’s defense forces.
Myanmar witnessed the killing of 11 children at a village school in a junta air strike in September 2022 that sparked global outrage.
Pope Francis condemned the incident for contravening an international humanitarian law against attacks on children in times of conflict.
ASEAN leaders recently called on Myanmar’s armed forces and all related parties in the conflict “to de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians, houses and public facilities, such as schools and hospitals.” – UCA News
