Earlier this week, the Myanmar air force attacked a resistance-run school in central Myanmar, killing more than 20 children and two volunteer teachers, highlighting the military junta’s ongoing air war against those opposing its rule.
The school was operated by the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) in Depayin, a town in Sagaing Region around 160 kilometers north of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
In a report yesterday, The Irrawaddy stated that the death toll from the attack had reached 25, following the death of three more children from serious injuries sustained in the attack.
The attack took place on the morning of May 12, when a fighter jet bombed the O Htein Twin village school, where around 100 children were studying. According to The Irrawaddy report, “the child victims were aged between seven and 16 and two volunteer teachers in their early 20s were also killed.”
The Irrawaddy quoted local People’s Defense Forces as saying that the damage to the school and its surroundings appeared to have been caused by cluster munitions. The use of these weapons is banned by many countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions due to their highly destructive and indiscriminate nature, although Myanmar is not a signatory to the agreement.
In a statement following the attack, the NUG’s Ministry of Education condemned the attack and pledged that “all individuals implicated in the commanding, execution, or collusion of deliberate air strikes against innocent children, students, and educators shall be subject to stringent judicial repercussions.”
Depayin is not far from the epicenter of the powerful earthquake that hit central Myanmar on March 28, killing more than 3,700 people and causing devastation along a north-south axis running through the country’s central dry zone. The attack also took place despite the ceasefire that the junta announced in the wake of the earthquake to support relief efforts. The junta’s first ceasefire announcement took place on April 2, and it has since extended this twice, until the end of May.
However, from nearly the moment that it was declared, the junta has continued to carry out attacks and airstrikes, despite the massive dislocation created by the disaster.
In early May, the U.N. released figures showing that up to April 29, the military had “launched at least 243 attacks, including 171 air strikes, with over 200 civilians reportedly killed.” Separate data compiled earlier by Reuters concluded that the military launched “at least 207 attacks, including 140 airstrikes and 24 artillery barrages” between March 28 and April 24. Of these, more than 172 attacks occurred after the ceasefire, and 73 took place in areas, like Depayin township, that were heavily affected by the earthquake.
In a statement on Monday, the junta’s information service denounced the press reports of the attack and denied attacking innocent civilians. It alleged that the school in O Htein Twin was being used by anti-regime groups to produce “improvised mines and bombs” and that local residents had been informed that “areas where terrorists congregate will be designated as military targets.”
It said that reports to the contrary emanated from “unofficial and subversive media outlets” that were “intentionally disseminating false narratives and spreading misinformation to cover up their inhumane acts of terrorism.”
The key point, of course, is that in all three of its ceasefire announcements, the military administration has reserved the right to respond if resistance groups engage in recruitment, offensive operations, or attempt any military build-ups. Since it makes these decisions itself, with no outside scrutiny, it is no surprise that the ceasefire has barely been worth the paper it was announced on.