Junta troops have carried out 22 massacres across Myanmar since the February 2021 military coup, according to an independent research group based in Yangon.
The massacres – defined as the killing of 10 or more civilians at once – have left more than 500 people dead, including children and elderly, the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar) said in a statement on Friday.
The most recent attack on civilians killed 29 people, including 11 children, happened on Oct. 9 when a bomb was dropped on the Mung Lai Hkyet internally displaced persons camp near the Kachin Independence Army headquarters.
“We are always worried about when the artillery will hit us again or when the planes will come back to drop bombs on us,” a woman who survived the attack told Radio Free Asia.
Thirteen of the 22 attacks happened in northern region of Sagaing, ISP-Myanmar found.
The deadliest one took place in Pa Zi Gyi village in Sagaing's Kanbalu township on April 11 when nearly 170 people were killed in an air strike, ISP-Myanmar said.
The group’s statement also listed the May 2022 junta raid on Mon Taing Pin village in Sagaing’s Ye-U township that resulted in 29 civilian deaths.
Although the junta has admitted it was behind the air attack on Pa Zi Gyi village, junta spokesman Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the regime wasn’t responsible for the Mung Lai Hkyet bombing.
Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the National Unity Government – made up of former civilian leaders and anti-junta activists – said that the details of the massacres should be referred to the International Criminal Court.
In July, the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights released a tally that showed 144 incidents in which a junta attack on civilians resulted in more than five deaths.
The junta will continue to commit massacres if ASEAN and the rest of the international community doesn’t take decisive action, said Zaw Win of the Southeast Asia-based human rights group Fortify Rights.
Attempts by RFA to contact Zaw Min Tun on Friday for comment on the ISP-Myanmar’s statement went unanswered.
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Matt Reed.