BANGKOK - Myanmar’s military said on Wednesday it carried out the deadly attack on a village gathering organised by its insurgent opponents this week, and if civilians were also killed it was because they were being forced to help the “terrorists”. 

At least 50 people, including children, were killed in Tuesday’s air strike on Pazigyi village in the Sagaing area in north-west Myanmar, according to media reports and a witness contacted by Agence France-Presse, as the United Nations and Western powers condemned the attacks and demanded accountability.

The South-east Asian country has been in chaos and its economy in tatters since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told military broadcast channel Myawaddy the attack on the ceremony held by the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration, for its armed People’s Defence Force (PDF), was aimed at restoring peace and stability in the region. 

“During that opening ceremony, we conducted the attack. PDF members were killed. They are the ones opposing the government of the country, the people of the country,” said Mr Zaw Min Tun. 

“According to our ground information, we hit their weapons’ storage, which exploded and people died due to that,” he added. 

Referring to accusations of civilian casualties, he said “some people who were forced to support them probably died as well”.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the deadly air strikes, whose victims he said included schoolchildren performing dances.

The global body called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Mr Turk accused Myanmar’s military of once again disregarding “clear legal obligations… to protect civilians in the conduct of hostilities”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns the attack by the Myanmar Armed Forces”, according to a statement by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Mr Guterres “reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country”, the spokesman added.

Washington said it was “deeply concerned” about the air strikes.

“These violent attacks further underscore the regime’s disregard for human life and its responsibility for the dire political and humanitarian crisis in Burma following the February 2021 coup,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement, using the country’s former name.

“The United States calls on the Burma regime to cease the horrific violence, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and to respect the genuine and inclusive democratic aspirations of the people of Burma.”

‘Great pain’

Sagaing region – near the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay – has put up some of the fiercest resistance to the military’s rule, with intense fighting raging there for months.

Graphic video clips circulating on social media – footage AFP has been unable to verify – showed bodies scattered among ruined homes.

“We are going to rescue you if we hear you screaming,” one person could be heard saying in the video. “Please scream!”

A rescuer connected to a PDF group told AFP that after recovering bodies and transporting victims for medical treatment, he estimated the death toll could be up to 100.

Mr Zaw Min Tun said photographs showed some of the dead were in uniform and some in civilian clothes, accusing the PDF of falsely claiming civilian deaths when it was its soldiers that were killed.

He also accused members of the PDF of committing “war crimes” and killing “monks, teachers and innocent residents” in the area who did not support the opposition.

Germany’s Foreign Office in a tweet said it “strongly condemns the #Myanmar army’s air strike killing dozens of civilians, including many children”, adding: “We expect the regime to end the violence against its people immediately.”

The NUG, which is dominated by former lawmakers from ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, condemned the strike as a “heinous act”.

“We… share the great pain felt by the families affected by this tragedy,” it said.

The military, which accuses anti-coup fighters of being terrorists, has faced international condemnation for razing villages, mass killings and air strikes on civilians.

More than 30 people sheltering in a monastery were killed in Shan state in March.

In 2022, an air strike on a concert put on by the Kachin Independence Army in northern Kachin state killed around 50 people and wounded more than 70, the rebels said.

At a military parade in March, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing vowed to continue cracking down on opponents.

The military in March announced a six-month extension of a state of emergency and postponed elections it had promised to hold by August because it did not control enough of the country for a vote. AFP, REUTERS