BANGKOK – Save The Children on Tuesday condemned the death of 11 children during an alleged attack by members of the Myanmar military junta against a school in the central region of Sagaing.
The regional director of the NGO for Asia, Hassan Noor, asked in a statement for an “urgent meeting” of the United Nations Security Council on Myanmar to approve a “resolution that protects the rights of children” in this country.
“Heads of government from around the world will meet this week in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. They must condemn this attack and do everything in their power to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he said. Noor.
The alternative government of national unity, made up of pro-democracy activists and politicians, said in a statement that the airstrike was carried out by the military junta.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) denounced the attack and demanded the release of about 15 children from the same school who have disappeared, apparently kidnapped.
For its part, Save The Children has asked that children and schools remain out of the conflict scene and calls for “the immediate cessation of violence and that children and civilians be kept out of danger”.
Warning: the images may be strong for some people.
“How many more incidents like this have to happen before action is taken?” asks Noor.
Neither Unicef nor Save the Children mention in their communications the military junta or those responsible for the attack on the school, which was located inside a Buddhist monastery.
Two Save The Children workers were killed last December in another indiscriminate attack allegedly perpetrated by the military in the state of Kayah, in the east of the country, in which women and children were also killed.
At least 90 people died.
The Burmese junta claims Friday’s attack was in response to an insurgent attack, with “extremists” hiding in the monastery, something denied by the People’s Defense Forces (PDF), a movement that emerged in opposition to the coup, according to the Burmese outlet The Irrawaddy.
The military coup of 1 February plunged Myanmar into a profound political, social and economic crisis and opened a spiral of violence with new civilian militias that have exacerbated the guerrilla warfare that the country has been experiencing for decades.
–
