Witness says 13 die in raid on school, village

Government helicopters have attacked a school and village in north-central Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children, a school administrator said on Monday.

The number of children killed in the air attack last Friday in Tabayin township in Sagaing region appeared to be the highest since the army seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army’s takeover triggered mass non-violent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. Fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where the military has launched several offensives, in some cases burning villages, which displaced more than half a million people, according to a report issued by Unicef this month.

Friday’s attack occurred in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin, also known as Depayin, about 110 kilometres northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

School administrator Mar Mar said two of four Mi-35 helicopters hovering north of the village began attacking, firing machine guns and heavier weapons at the school, which is in the compound of the village’s Buddhist monastery.

Mar Mar works at the school with 20 volunteers who teach 240 students from kindergarten to eighth grade. She said she had not expected trouble since the aircraft had been over the village before without any incident.

‘‘They kept shooting into the compound from the air for an hour,’’ Mar Mar said.

When the air attack stopped, about 80 soldiers entered the monastery compound, firing their guns at the buildings.

The soldiers then ordered everyone in the compound to come out of the buildings. Mar Mar said she saw about 30 students with wounds on their backs, thighs, faces and other parts of the bodies. Some students had lost limbs.

‘‘The children told me that their friends were dying,’’ she said. ‘‘I also heard a student yelling, ‘It hurts so much. I can’t take it anymore. Kill me, please.’ This voice still echoes in my ears,’’ Mar Mar said.

She said at least six students were killed in the school and a 13-year-old boy working at a fishery in the village was also fatally shot. At least six adults were also killed.

A day after the attack, the staterun Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that members of the People’s Defence Force and their allies from the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group, were hiding inside houses and the monastery and started shooting at the security forces, causing deaths and injuries among village residents. –