There were three airstrikes in Karen State’s Mutraw and Dooplaya Districts on Myanmar Armed Forces Day, 27 March, according to the International Karen Organisation, which condemned the attacks.
In the first attack two fighter jets dropped four bombs on Day Bu Noh village, in Mutraw District’s Lu Thaw Township, damaging houses and buildings at around 2am.
The same village was hit by an airstrike on the Armed Forces Day last year in what was the first airstrike in Karen State for 25 years.
Later, on 27 March, at around 1:30pm and 5:10pm there were two more airstrikes around Bler Doh Village in (Kawkareik) Township.
The day before, 26 March, there were airstrikes in the Oo Gray Kee area that destroyed villagers’ houses.
The Burmese military is also using heavy artillery and indiscriminately bombing civilian villages in the area, causing more displacement and a humanitarian crisis.
The Burmese military’s indiscriminate bombings of civilian targets are violations of international law, constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity, and there must be accountability for their international crimes, according to the International Karen Organisation.
Currently, it estimates that there are around 150,000 displaced civilians in Karen State alone and they are in desperate need of food, medicine and shelter. The majority are displaced because of airstrikes or can’t return home because of the threat of airstrikes.
The organisation would like to see the international community provide more humanitarian aid for the displaced civilians and for international NGOs to work with local Karen organisations for aid delivery through cross-border assistance, and the relaxing of unreasonable sourcing and reporting requirements, which are impossible to meet when delivering cross border aid to a conflict zone.
Whilst welcoming new sanctions targeting the Burmese air force imposed last week by the UK, USA and Canada, the International Karen Organisation also wants the European Union to impose sanctions on aviation fuel supplies to Myanmar to help stop Burmese military airstrikes by starving their jets of fuel.
To achieve this there should be sanctions on Burmese companies involved in the supply of aviation fuel to the Burmese military and sanctions to stop international companies from being involved in any aspect of supplying aviation fuel to the Burmese military. Those companies involved in the supply of aviation fuel to the Burmese military are complicit in the bombing of civilians and violations of international law.
The International Karen Organisation also calls on the Thai government to stop pushing refugees back to conflict zones in Burma and allowing them to stay in Thailand until it is safe for them to return home.
