Military targets civilians in Kachin State while holding final election round
Civilians are hit in airstrikes in several regions of the country on the eve of the last phase of voting organised by the military junta. In the village of Kawngjar, Kachin State, an attack left at least 22 dead during a funeral prayer. Other raids struck Magway and Sagaing. Condemned by much of the international community, the electoral process was marred by intimidations, while areas controlled by resistance forces were excluded from voting.
Yangon (AsiaNews) – As Myanmar's military junta completed the final round of voting, deemed a sham by much of the international community, the election was accompanied by a new trail of blood.
In recent days, before polls opened yesterday for the third phase of voting, a series of airstrikes hit the civilian population in various parts of the country.
The most serious incident occurred last Thursday in Kawngjar, a village also known as Hteelin west of Bhamo, in Kachin State, where a funeral ceremony was hit by an airstrike, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.
In the early afternoon, while residents had gathered for a prayer in memory of a recently deceased villager, a plane dropped two bombs.
The village was not in an active combat zone, but had become a place of refuge for hundreds of internally displaced persons fleeing intense urban fighting in the town of Bhamo.
“We were gathered to pray, seeking a moment of peace to honour the dead," said one survivor who fled to the village last month. “The sound of the jet was the only warning. Then everything was fire and screams. They didn't just kill the living. They attacked us while we were honouring our dead”.
According to Colonel Naw Bu, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), 18 people died instantly, while the death toll rose to 22 in the following days, when some of the wounded died due to lack of adequate treatment.
“The junta is fully aware that these are non-combat zones," Colonel Naw Bu stated. “This was a deliberate act of terror to paralyse the population ahead of their sham vote."
The massacre in Kachin State was not an isolated incident. In the 72 hours preceding yesterday’s vote, the junta intensified its aerial bombardment campaign in several disputed areas of the country.
In Magway Region, an airstrike hit a wedding party in Tatgone, a village in Aunglan Township, killing five civilians, including a one-year-old child.
Other raids targeted civilian infrastructure in Indaw and Mawlu, Sagaing Region, while more than 8,000 people were forced to flee into the jungle in Salin Township, also in Magway, following a ground offensive.
According to local military analysts, the attacks in Kachin State were a pre-emptive attempt to suppress resistance forces that could have hindered the final phase of voting in the strategic Bhamo–Shwegu corridor.
In Bhamo, where the military controls the city centre but lost the airport and several surrounding outposts, the vote took place exclusively inside fortified military compounds.
“The military is using the election as justification for mass murder," said a human rights defender with the organisation Fortify Rights. “They bomb the villages to keep people from moving, and then they claim a successful turnout in the areas they've emptied of opposition.”
While junta-controlled media are set to announce the victory of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the reality on the ground is quite different.
The entire electoral process, which took place in three phases between 28 December and 25 January, has been widely condemned by international observers as lacking any democratic credibility.
The country's most popular party, the National League for Democracy, has been banned, while its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention.
The final phase of the vote also followed the pattern seen in previous rounds: families were threatened with the loss of access to public services if they abstained from voting, while state officials were warned that they would lose their jobs.
In some areas under the control of resistance forces, the junta failed to organise any elections at all.
As the regime prepares to install a new USDP-dominated parliament and announce the transition from General Min Aung Hlaing's presidency to a civilian government, part of the international community refuses to recognise the results. For its part, China has avoided condemning the electoral process, maintaining its support for the military junta.
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