Save the Children says staff killed in Myanmar junta massacre

Bangkok: The humanitarian group Save the Children says it has confirmed that two of its staff were among at least 35 people, including children, who were killed in eastern Myanmar on Christmas Eve in an attack it blamed on the country’s military.

It said the two staff members were caught up in the attack in Kayah state as they were travelling back to their office after conducting humanitarian activities in a nearby community.

“Violence against innocent civilians, including aid workers, is intolerable, and this senseless attack is a breach of International Humanitarian Law,” the group’s chief executive, Inger Ashing, said in a statement.

Vehicles smoulder in Hpruso township, Kayah state, Myanmar, on Friday. Villagers, some believed to be women and children, were fatally shot.Credit: KNDF/AP

“This is not an isolated event. The people of Myanmar continue to be targeted with increasing violence and these events demand an immediate response,” Ashing said.

Civil war fears

The army seized power in February, ousting the elected government and arresting top officials. Its action was met by nonviolent nationwide demonstrations, which security forces quashed with deadly force, killing nearly 1,400 civilians, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Peaceful protests have continued, but an armed resistance has also grown amid the severe crackdown, to the point that UN experts have warned the country could be sliding into civil war.

Save the Children called on the UN Security Council to respond to the army violence with steps including an arms embargo. It also urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to press for the implementation of an agreement reached in April with Myanmar’s leader calling for the cessation of violence in the country and mediation by an ASEAN special envoy.

Charred bodies

Photos of the attack have spread on social media in Myanmar, fuelling outrage against the military.

The photos show the charred bodies of over 30 people in three burned-out vehicles who were reportedly shot by government troops as they were fleeing combat.

A villager who said he went to the scene told The Associated Press that the victims had fled the fighting between armed resistance groups and Myanmar’s army near Koi Ngan village, which is just beside Mo So, on Friday. He said they were killed after they were arrested by troops while heading to refugee camps in the western part of the township. His account could not be immediately verified.

Smokes and flames billow from vehicles in Hpruso township, Kayah state, in Myanmar.Credit:

A report in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper on Saturday said the fighting near Mo So broke out on Friday when members of ethnic guerrilla forces, known as the Karenni National Progressive Party, and those opposed to the military drove in “suspicious” vehicles and attacked security forces after refusing to stop.

The newspaper said the seven vehicles they were travelling in were destroyed in a fire. It gave no further details about the killings.

Earlier this month, government troops were also accused of rounding up villagers, some believed to be children, tying them up and slaughtering them. An opposition leader, Dr Sasa, who uses only one name, said the civilians were burned alive.

The ruling military has not commented on the killings near Mo So village in Kayah State on Friday and several calls since Saturday to junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun went unanswered.

State media reported on Sunday that soldiers had fired on and killed an unspecified number of “terrorists with weapons” in the village. It did not say anything about civilians.

UN, US fury

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said there were credible reports the civilians, including at least one child, were forced from vehicles, killed and burned. He did not elaborate on why he considered the reports credible.

“I am horrified by reports of an attack against civilians... I condemn this grievous incident and all attacks against civilians throughout the country, which are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” he said in a statement.

Griffiths called for “a thorough and transparent” investigation so the perpetrators could be brought to justice.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attacks and called on the international community to end the sale of arms and dual-use technology to the Myanmar military in an effort to prevent the “recurrence of atrocities”.

“The targeting of innocent people and humanitarian actors is unacceptable, and the military’s widespread atrocities against the people of Burma underscore the urgency of holding its members accountable,” Blinken said in a statement, using another name for the country.

Save the Children said it has been working in Myanmar since 1995, providing healthcare, food, education and child protection services. It said it has suspended operations in the region of the attack.

AP, Reuters