Board continues air attacks after devastating earthquake

The Myanmar Military Board has continued to bombard parts of the country devastated by the war after the great earthquake there, which has killed more than 1,600 people.

The UN has described attacks as “completely scandalous and unacceptable.”

The Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews told the BBC that it was “nothing less than incredible” for the army to continue “dropping bombs when you try to rescue people” after the earthquake.

He asked the military regime, which seized power in a coup d’etat almost four years ago to stop all military operations.

“Anyone who has influence in the army needs to intensify the pressure and make it very clear that this is not acceptable,” he said.

“I am calling the Board to stop, stop any of its military operations,” he added.

BBC Birmes confirmed that seven people were killed in an air strike in Naungch in the north of Shan’s state. This strike took place around 15:30 local time, less than three hours after the earthquake.

The prodemocratic rebel groups that fight to eliminate the military from power have reported aerial bombing in the municipality of Chang-U in the Northwest Sagaing region, the epicenter of the earthquake. There are also reports of air attacks in regions near the Thai border.

The Government of the National Unit (NUG), which represents the expelled civil administration, said in a statement that its armed forces would begin a two -week pause in “offensive military operations, except for defensive actions” in areas affected by the earthquake, since Sunday.

The earthquake of magnitude 7.7 that hit the saga also felt in neighboring countries. It was followed by destruction reports from the nearby Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar, as well as the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, which is more than 150 miles (241 km) away.

The Board says that it is known that 1,644 people died and believe that many more are trapped under the rubble.

The earthquake occurs after four years of civil war in Myanmar that followed a military coup in 2021. The blow triggered great protests, with thousands of streets daily, demanding the restoration of the civil government.

What initially began as a civil disobedience campaign soon became a generalized insurgency that involved prodemocratic and ethnic rebel groups, which finally caused a total civil war.

Four years later, the violent struggle has continued between the army, on the one hand, and the ethnic armies and the armed resistance groups on the other.

The Board, which has suffered continuous and humiliating defeats and has lost vast extensions of territory, depends more and more on air attacks to crush the resistance to its rule.

Large parts of the Sagaing region, the epicenter of the earthquake, are now under the control of resistance groups in favor of democracy.

A BBC investigation revealed that almost four years after taking power in a coup d’etat, The Army now controls less than a quarter of the country.

The investigation revealed that the ethnic armies and a mosaic of resistance groups now control 42% of the country’s land mass, while much of the remaining area remains disputed.

It is in air combat that the military regime has the advantage. Resistance groups lack the ability to fight in the air.

The army has a story of carrying out indiscriminate air bombings that have destroyed schools, monasteries, churches and hospitals. In One of the most mortal air attacks, more than 170 people were killedincluding many women and children.

The UN body that investigates human rights violations in the country has warned that the Military Board is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against their own people.

The Army Air War is being supported by the continuous support of Russia and China. Although the UN requires an embargo on weapons in response to the coup d’etat, both China and Russia have sold sophisticated attack aircraft of the Board and have provided training on how to use it.

Russia and China have also sent help and rescue teams to Myanmar. But the Burmese rights activist based in the United Kingdom, Julie Khine, said: “It is difficult to trust sympathy now, when they are also the same countries that supply the Military Board with mortal weapons used to kill our innocent civilians.”

There is also a generalized concern that the military use help as a weapon in the Civil War.

Myanmar’s army has a long -standing practice to deny help areas where resistance groups are active.

Tom Andrews of the UN told the BBC that during past aid efforts, the military blocked the aid and arrested the help workers.

“What we know about past humanitarian disasters, natural disasters, is that the Board does not reveal the truth. It also has the habit of blocking humanitarian aid of reaching where more is needed,” he said.

“They assemble this help. They send it to those areas of which they have control and deny it to the areas that do not.

“So it has areas in which there are the most acute needs and has literally helped try to enter, trucks that block the way, the arrested people and that has been the pattern of their response to natural disasters in the past.

“I fear that I hope that is the case with this disaster.”