Myanmar’s military government denies carrying out deadly air attack on school
A spokesman blamed the government’s armed opponents for the casualties.
Myanmar’s military-ruled government has denied reports that it carried out an air attack on a school in the country’s turbulent north-central region that killed at least seven children, accusing the media of distorting the truth.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling military council, acknowledged at a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw that there had been fighting last Friday in Tabayin township in Sagaing region.
However, he blamed the government’s armed opponents for the casualties, which also included six adult villagers.
A school administrator said that after about an hour of continuous shooting, about 80 soldiers charged into the monastery grounds, firing their weapons.
The administrator, who used the pseudonym Mar Mar so she would not be identified by the authorities, said about 30 children were wounded and 20 were taken away by soldiers along with three teachers.
The number of children killed in the air strike appeared to be the highest in a single day since the army seized power in a coup in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The army’s takeover triggered mass non-violent protests nationwide, but when the military and police responded with deadly force, armed resistance arose in cities and the countryside.
There are six camps hosting displaced people in Tabayin, which is also known as Depayin.
Zaw Min Tun told journalists on Tuesday that the incident occurred when soldiers went to check on information that there were members of the armed anti-government People’s Defence Force and their allies from the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group, in Let Yet Kone.
The People’s Defence Force was established last year to oppose military rule.
He said the armed groups’ members herded the villagers into the monastery ahead of the fighting.
He said the army rescued the people hiding at the monastery after the armed groups ran away, and that when the soldiers found two children with serious injuries, they were immediately taken by helicopter to a military hospital. Other wounded villagers were taken to nearby hospitals, he added.
He claimed accounts of the attack were made up to come just ahead of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, where Myanmar’s violent crisis will be debated.
His account of the incident was challenged by the school administrator.
“What Zaw Min Tun said at the press conference were words opposite to the truth. Teaching the students every day is our job. No one forced us into the monastery and there was no armed group in the village,” Mar Mar said.
