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About 150 people had gathered for the opening ceremony, and women and 20 to 30 children were among the dead, he said, adding that those killed also included leaders of locally formed anti-government armed groups and other opposition organisations.
Military officers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw last month.Credit: AP
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“This heinous act by the terrorist military is yet another example of their indiscriminate use of extreme force against innocent civilians, constituting a war crime,” the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) said in a statement.
The NUG calls itself the country’s legitimate government, in opposition to the army. The office being opened on Tuesday was part of its administrative network.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told military broadcast channel Myawaddy the attack on the ceremony held by the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration, for their armed People’s Defence Force was aimed at restoring peace and stability in the region.
“During that opening ceremony, we conducted the attack. PDF members were killed. They are the ones opposing the government of the country, the people of the country,” he said.
Residents from eastern Myanmar are seen after fleeing into Thailand’s Tak Province from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district.Credit: AP
“According to our ground information we hit the place of their weapons’ storage and that exploded and people died due to that,” he said.
Referring to accusations of civilian casualties, he said “some people who were forced to support them probably died as well”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for those responsible to be held accountable, his spokesperson said, adding that Guterres “reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country”.
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Zaw Min Tun claimed photographs showed some of those killed were in uniform and some in civilian clothes, accusing the PDF of falsely claiming civilian deaths when their forces were killed.
He also accused members of the PDF of committing “war crimes” and killing “monks, teachers and innocent residents” in the area who did not support the opposition.
Citing residents of the region, BBC Burmese, Radio Free Asia (RFA) Burmese, and the Irrawaddy news portal reported between 50 and 100 people, including civilians, had been killed in the attack by government forces.
In response to accusations of abuses, the military government often accuses pro-democracy forces of terrorism.
But analysts for the United Nations and non-governmental organisations have gathered credible evidence of large-scale human rights abuses by the army, including the burning of entire villages and displacement of more than a million people, triggering a humanitarian crisis.
The death toll from the air attack, if confirmed, will be the highest in more than two years of civil conflict that began when the army seized power in 2021.
Witnesses and independent media reports said dozens of villagers were killed in Pazigyi.Credit: Kyunhla Activists Group via AP
As many as 80 people were killed in October in another government air attack in northern Myanmar on an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organisation, which is also battling the military government.
The country has been in turmoil since the army takeover triggered widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.
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The army has been conducting major offensives in the countryside, where it has faced some of the toughest resistance in Sagaing, in Myanmar’s historic heartland. The resistance forces have no defence against air attacks.
In videos of the devastated village seen by AP, survivors and onlookers stumble through the area of the attack amid clouds of thick smoke, with only the skeleton frame of one building still standing in the distance and charged bodies scattered around. The videos could not immediately be verified but matched other descriptions of the scene.
Some motorbikes remained intact while others were reduced to their frames or buried under tree branches. In one area, two victims lay close together, one of whom had only one arm still attached.
Another victim lay face down in a small grove by the roadside. A few meters away, a small torso missing at least one limb could be seen.
AP, Reuters
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