At least 170 civilians were killed in a hail of bloody air attacks that destroyed the sham election in Myanmar, the United Nations confirmed Friday, calling it a horrible escalation in the iron fist of the junta. With a trickle of voters flocking to polls following calls of boycotts and gunfire, the warplanes wrought havoc on the rebel strongholds reducing the ballot boxes to body bags.
The slaughtering took place on Thursday in Sagaing, Kayah and Shan states as the resistance forces fought with Tatmadaw troops. The UN human rights chief Volker Tuerk condemned the attacks as an indiscriminate massacre, based on satellite shots of villages and hospitals that were burned to the ground. More than 80 percent of the townships are still in conflict with ethnic armies such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and People’s Defence Force (PDF) threatening a total war against the puppet elections of Min Aung Hlaing.
JF-17 jets Pakistani-supplied killers in Mogok, the so-called Valley of Rubies, flew overhead screaming and dropping 500kg bombs on busy markets, as described by eyewitnesses. Children who were playing close to polling stations evaporated within seconds wept survivor Ma Nu who is bandaged in a Thai border clinic. State press quoted terrorism sabotage, but independent estimates put the number of dead at 172, including 47 women and children, and 300+ injured.
It was a vote dipped in blood and the first vote since the 2021 coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi and attracted the wrath of world powers. The US, EU and India criticised it as a sham show, threatening to impose new sanctions on junta cronies. Beijing, the lifeline of Myanmar called for restraint and channelled weapons in the value of 2B US dollars annually. The toothless peace plan by ASEAN failed after Thailand closed its borders in fear of floods of refugees.
What is the apocalypse of the airstrike? Junta strategists are even targeting election legitimacy so they can avoid ICC war crimes investigations, but rebels calculated offensives at the right time to reveal the mockery. The rewards of operation 1027 (The capture of Lashio town hall) held back the forces of Min Aung Hlaing, and it caused panic bombing. Commentators fear famine: 3 million displaced, rice fields burned, aid convoys fired at.
NLD shadow govt leader Win Myint organized diaspora: “We will burn with every bomb. The world looks on as a country disintegrates as Naypyidaw skies are choked by smoke. UNSC will use R2P, or genocide will spread? In the case of India, it is chaos borderingont promises Manipur spillover and smuggler waves–Modi needs to shift his stance towards silence.
