Air strikes by Myanmar’s military killed as many as 80 people, including singers and musicians, attending an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organization, members of the group and a rescue worker said Monday.
The reported attack comes three days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers are to hold a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss widening violence in Myanmar.
The number of casualties at Sunday night’s celebration by the Kachin Independence Organization in the northern state of Kachin appeared to be the most in a single air attack since the military seized power in February last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Initial reports put the death toll at around 60, but later tallies raised it to about 80.
It was impossible to independently confirm details of the incident, though media sympathetic to the Kachin posted videos showing what was said to be the attack’s aftermath, with splintered and flattened wooden structures.
The military government’s information office confirmed in a statement late Monday that there was an attack on what it described as the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army’s 9th Brigade, calling it a “necessary operation” in response to “terrorist” acts carried out by the Kachin group.
The concert in Kansi village of Kachin State was to mark the 62nd anniversary of the rebel army's campaign for autonomy.
Witnesses reported three huge explosions at around 8:30pm local time on Sunday. They ripped apart the cluster of buildings at the base and caused heavy casualties in the audience.
While local Kachin ethnic groups said that the majority of those killed were civilians, those killed also included Kachin Independence Army (KIA) troops, a KIA spokesperson said, adding that at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs were among the dead.
Who are the Kachin people?
The Kachin people (or the Jingpo) are a confederation of six ethnic groups whose homeland encompasses territory in the Kachin Hills of northern Myanmar, in southern China (Yunnan) and northeastern India.
Following Burmese independence from the United Kingdom, many ethnic minorities, including the Kachins, campaigned for self-determination and independence.
The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) was founded by dissidents in 1960 as a result of the grievances which existed between the majority-Bamar union government and the Kachin people.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was established as its armed wing in 1961, acting as a private army with 27 members. In the early 1960s the KIA began expanding and increasing in numbers, especially after the 1962 Burmese coup d'état and its perceived threat by ethnic minorities.
Myanmar's decades-long Civil War intensifies
For decades, Myanmar’s minorities have sought autonomy through uprisings, but anti-government resistance has increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposing last year’s military takeover.
In the months following the coup, the opposition began to coalesce around the National Unity Government, which launched an offensive against the Myanmar junta. By 2022, the opposition was controlling substantial—though sparsely populated—territory.
The human rights situation in Myanmar has deteriorated substantially since the beginning of the civil conflict. As of September 2022, 1.3 million people have been internally displaced, and over 13,000 children have been killed.
The Burmese military has escalated its use of war crimes, including murder, sexual violence, torture, and targeting of civilians.
Since the onset of the civil conflict, both the Burmese military and resistance forces alike have used educational facilities as bases and detention sites.
In 2021, over 190 violent attacks on schools were reported in 13 of Myanmar's states and regions.
As of June 2022, 7.8 million children remained out of school.
The junta has also seized the properties of political opponents as part of an intimidation strategy, impacting hundreds of families.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's public health system has effectively collapsed.
The civil war has also worsened the country's food security crisis, with one in four people experiencing food insecurity. Poverty and food insecurity have disproportionately affected Myanmar's Dry Zone and the Irrawaddy delta regions, which account for over 80% of the country's agricultural area, and are home to a third of the country's population.
