Pazigyi massacre

A mass killing of civilians was carried out by the Myanmar Air Force on 11 April 2023, in the village of Pazigyi, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region, located 92 miles (148 km) west of Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city. During the massacre, the Myanmar Air Force launched a series of airstrikes at the opening ceremony of the People's Administration Office in Pazigyi village, a large gathering in territory held by resistance forces, killing at least 130 people in the junta's deadliest attack since seizing power in the 2021 coup d'état.^[2][3]

Pazigyi massacre
Part of the Myanmar civil war (2021–present)
Pazigyi massacre Pazigyi massacre (Myanmar)
Location	Pazigyi, Sagaing Region
Date	11 April 2023
Deaths	at least 130^[1]
Perpetrators	Myanmar Air Force

Background

Further information: 2021 Myanmar coup d'état and Myanmar civil war (2021–present)

On 1 February 2021, the Myanmar Armed Forces staged a coup d'état and deposed the democratically elected government led by the National League for Democracy. Shortly thereafter, the military established a junta, the State Administration Council (SAC), and declared a national state of emergency. In response, civilians throughout the country staged large-scale protests to resist the military takeover.^[4]

By May 2021, the civilian-led resistance had escalated into a civil war against the SAC, which was unwilling to compromise. Pazigyi is situated in the traditional Bamar Buddhist heartland, which quickly emerged as a stronghold of resistance against military rule. Pazigyi is a small farming village of approximately 233 households,^[5] located in Sagaing Region, which borders the country's second-largest city, Mandalay.^[6]

In early April 2023, Myanmar Army troops launched a military offensive in Sagaing Region, where Pazigyi is located, to intimidate and suppress local resistance, by burning and raiding villages, executing villagers, and driving thousands of people from their homes.^[7] By 23 February, 14 of the 50 townships placed under martial law were located in Sagaing Region.

Incident

On 11 April 2023, over 800 villagers gathered in Pazigyi to celebrate the opening of a People's Defence Force administration office, where food and tea was offered. The event coincided with the third day of Burmese New Year celebrations.^[8] During the celebration, a JF-17 fighter jet bombed the area,^[3] causing nearby munitions to blow up.^[2] Shortly thereafter, a helicopter fired indiscriminately on targets below.^[3] The air raid resulted in the deaths of over 130 civilians^[9] and left another 30 injured, with many of the victims being women and children.^[10][11]

Later at 5:23pm, a Mi-35 helicopter that had taken off from Tada-U air force base launched a second attack on Pazigyi village.^[12][13]

Still on 11 April, late at night, the junta's spokesperson, Major General Zaw Min Tun, confirmed that the strike had happened, but he did not reveal how many people had been killed.^[14]

34 children were killed by the air strike, and many bodies were dismembered or burnt beyond identification.^[15] Every family in the village had lost between 2 to 4 family members during the attack.^[15]

Reactions

International response

Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres issued a statement on 11 April in which he strongly condemned the attack and demanded that those responsible be held accountable.^[16][17] United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews, stated "The Myanmar military’s attacks against innocent people, including today’s airstrike in Sagaing, is enabled by world indifference and those supplying them with weapons."^[18]

ASEAN issued a statement on April 13 condemning the attack, stating that "All forms of violence must end immediately, particularly the use of force against civilians," and reiterated the five-point consensus agreed upon in April 2021.^[19][20]

The United States Department of State expressed deep concern over the airstrikes and called on the Myanmar regime to put an end to the horrific violence.^[18][21] Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno strongly condemned the violence, and called for both the cessation of violence and restoration of democracy.^[22] Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Burmese military's use of force, adding it would worsen the domestic situation, and urged the regime to restore democracy.^[22] Both China and Russia refused to accept the draft resolution condemning the air strike.^[9]

Amnesty International called for an international suspension of aviation fuel imports to Myanmar.^[23]

Domestic response

The National Unity Government (NUG) has ordered that the flag of the People's Defense Force (PDF) be flown at half-mast to remember the victims of the military's air attacks.^[24]

The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw issued a statement warning that unless the international community takes decisive action against the terrorist army, countless Burmese citizens will continue to perish.^[25]

The NUG's Ministry of Defence has claimed that the air strike on Pazigyi village constitutes a war crime and has pledged to expel the military regime from Myanmar as swiftly as possible.^[26]

The NUG's foreign minister Zin Mar Aung, announced that she would strive to secure justice for the Pazigyi village.^[27]

The Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC) declared in a statement that the terrorist military council is engaging in mass air slaughters directed towards civilians, and emphasized the need for a concerted effort to fight against the military dictatorship with full force, to swiftly bring an end to their rule.^[28]

See also

•  Myanmar portal

• List of massacres in Myanmar
• Hpakant massacre

References

1. . MPA. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
2. Paddock, Richard C. (11 April 2023). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
3. Peck, Grant (11 April 2023). . AP NEWS. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
4. . Al Jazeera. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
5. . Myanmar DigitalNews (in Burmese). 10 June 2019. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
6. . DW. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
7. . The Irrawaddy. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
8. Ochab, Ewelina (12 April 2023). "Myanmar Military Kills More Than 100 People In A Single Attack". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
9. "ဧပြီ ၁၃ ရက်ထိပ်တန်းသတင်းများ-ပဇီကြီးကျေးရွာလေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်ခံရမှု ရှုတ်ချဖို့ အဆိုမူကြမ်းကို ရုရှားနဲ့တရုတ် လက်မခံ". BBC News မြန်မာ (in Burmese). 13 April 2023. from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
10. . Burma News International. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
11. . India TV News. 12 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
12. . MPA (in Burmese). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
13. မောင်ရွှေဝါ, မိုးဦး (11 April 2023). . Myanmar Now. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
14. . TRT. 12 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
15. Wah, Maung Shwe (2023-04-12). "'Children's bodies crushed into pieces' in Myanmar military airstrike on Kanbalu Township". Myanmar Now. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
16. "UN Secretary General and rights chief condemn Pazigyi Village massacre". Mizzima. 11 April 2023. from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
17. . United Nations Secretary-General. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
18. Regan, Helen; Sidhu, Sandi; Salai TZ; Coren, Anna (12 April 2023). . CNN. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
19. "ASEAN Chair's Statement on the Recent Air Strikes in Pa Zi Gyi Village, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region of Myanmar". ASEAN. from the original on 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
20. "ASEAN 'strongly condemns' deadly air strike in Myanmar". Rappler. 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
21. Patel, Vedant (2023-04-11). "Burma Regime Airstrikes". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
22. Chau, Thompson (2023-04-12). . Nikkei Asia. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
23. . Amnesty International. 2023-04-11. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
24. . Khit Thit Media (in Burmese). 12 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
25. "ပဇီကြီးရွာကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က လေကြောင်းနဲ့ တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့မှုအပေါ် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီက ကြေညာချက်ထုတ်ပြန် – PVTV Myanmar". PVTV (in Burmese). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
26. . Khit Thit Media (in Burmese). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
27. . Radio Free Asia (in Burmese). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023.
28. . Khit Thit Media (in Burmese). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.