Junta jets kill 50 in concert air strike

NAYPYIDAW: About 50 people were killed in an air strike by the ruling junta on a rebels’ music concert in the north of Myanmar in one of the bloodiest single incidents in the country’s civil war.

Three fighter jets of the military regime bombed the concert in Ginsi, a village close to the town of Hpakant, according to local reports. The event was being held to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Kachin Independence Organisation, one of the largest rebel groups in the country.

Among the dead were senior KIO officials and military officers, the musicians Aurali and Galau Yaw Lwi, and members of the audience. At least 100 people are said to have been injured.

Colonel Naw Bu, of the Kachin Independence Army, said the brutal regime would have known the event was packed with civilians.

“They were shooting at civilians, not at the enemy,” he told the Irrawaddy website. “This is an evil act, and this is a war crime. We are grieving over the deaths of our people.”

Twenty months after the coup that brought the junta to power, peaceful demonstrations in cities have given way to ragged but fierce clashes between the army and regional guerrilla groups. One of these, the People’s Defence Forces, fights in the name of the national unity government, a shadow government of deposed democratic politicians.

Human rights groups have documented the way that the junta has indiscriminately bombed and shelled villages and refugee camps.

“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military, which has killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Hana Young, of Amnesty International, said.

“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign.

It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site.”

The UN in Myanmar said: “What would appear to be excessive and disproportionate use of force against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and those responsible must be held to account.”