FORSEA forum discusses threat from Myanmar airstrikes

22 February 2023
FORSEA forum discusses threat from Myanmar airstrikes
Sri Saifuddin bin Abdullah, MP (since 2018) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia. Photo: Saifuddin Abdullah /Twitter

Myanmar coup leader Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing’s use of violent attacks from the air perfectly fits the definition of “domestic terrorism” developed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

That definition reads: Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.

On Tuesday evening, the NGO FORSEA hosted a dialogue live on the subject of a national armed forces resorting to targeted, precision airstrikes against civilian populations at home in Myanmar.

The discussion was entitled: How should ASEAN deal with a member state’s military turning terrorist?

Speakers included: Dato ’Sri Saifuddin bin Abdullah, MP (since 2018) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia; Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo, General Secretary, Karen Nation Union (KNU) established in 1948 and a founding member of Myanmar National Unity Consultative Committees; Neineh Ploh, Spokesperson, Karenni National Progressive Party; Salai Van Bawi Mang, Member, Chin National Front, Technical Team; Gum San Nsang, President, Kachin Alliance, Inc., USA & Secretary of Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team (KPICT); and host Maung Zarni, Co-founder of FORSEA and Fellow of the (Genocide) Documentation Center of Cambodia.

Core themes discussed involved terrorism but also the danger that an ASEAN member will once again get away with atrocities, as the Cambodian “Killing Fields” of the 1970s are still part of collective living memory.

Saw Ta Doh Moo, speaking on behalf of the KNU and Karen community, asked rhetorically why these air strikes were happening. He blamed the Tatmadaw pursuing terrorist acts against civilians.

Since the coup up until now, seven districts in central Myanmar were hit by 307 air strikes, he said. These attacks were made against the people and against churches, Buddhist monasteries and schools. This does not include attacks against our own fighters, he said.

Take one case in Muttraw district against a school, he noted. Three fighter jets dropped six large bombs on the school. Now the children are hiding in a temporary centre in the forest. This was a huge intentional attack

“This is using the state army against their own civilians. This is state terrorism,” Saw Tah Doh Moo said.

This is not an issue to be easily dismissed, he said. This is a threat to the ASEAN charter, a threat to the community. As he noted, ASEAN should intervene with India and China in attempts to prevent the delivery of aviation parts and fuel.

Salai Van Bawi Mang, speaking on behalf of the Chin community, said that since the coup, 420 Chin people had been killed, 280 of them being civilians, all due to the actions of the military. He noted that the military had lost control on the ground and had therefore reverted to using air strikes to attack their own civilians.

A key marker was July 2022, when the junta forces lost control on the ground in Chin state. They now have to use helicopters for food supplies for their troops.

Salai Van Bawi Mang said that what he had noticed was a major uptick in air strikes since January 2023 targeting infrastructure including schools, as the junta prepares for elections.

All is all, he said there had been 120 air strikes since the coup. He noted the attack on 10-11 January 2023 on Camp Victoria that killed five comrades, in which the junta air force intentionally bombed a civilian hospital.

“They intentionally bombed that place, even though they knew its designation,” he said, noting air strikes had picked up from 1 February until today, totaling more than 50 air strikes in 20 days.

From his experience from visiting an attack site, people are afraid, they cannot go out to work in the fields, he said, noting that people, particularly children, were traumatized.

Salai Van Bawi Mang called on ASEAN to tackle the issue but also focus on India, where IDPs live in large numbers.

Neinah Plo, a Karenni spokesperson, said the junta was using deadly force against civilians, causing a lot of physical damage.

He noted that the air strikes were indiscriminate but they attack anyway, a lot at night, using unguided rockets, bombs and cluster bombs that are banned internationally.

This has a lot of consequences, damaging homes, schools, clinics and religious buildings.

He noted one serious attack when the junta targeted an IDP camp in 2022 using several bombs in the middle of the night.

Neinah Plo says a leaked Myanmar military document has authorized the use of more air strikes, so the people can expect more terrorist attacks.

He called on the international community to take action to prevent these terrorist acts, targeting aviation fuel.

Gum San NSang, speaking on behalf of the Kachin community, said his community was not new to conflict, noting that there had been 50 air strikes in 2022 but that there had been an uptick in 2023, with close to 15 attacks every other day.

He reminded the audience of the massacre of 80 civilians at a concert and award ceremony in 2022.

“The junta is nothing short of a terrorist organization, waging war on civilians,” Gum San NSang said, noting how the junta had used helicopters to gun down Rohingya in 2017.

“It is incumbent on ASEAN to take action as the regime in a member state is massacring its own people,” he said, noting that the “next killing field event is unfolding in our midst”.

He noted that the 5-Point ASEAN consensus was a veneer for inaction, noting it has to be rewritten as a “genocide regime impacts ASEAN itself”.

Saifuddin bin Abdullah, a former foreign minister of Malaysia, noted he had been trying to help ASEAN members understand what is happening in Myanmar.

“This is an important discussion on what is happening in Myanmar. It was mentioned earlier terrorism and terrorist – the air strikes and helicopter gunships, even what happens on the ground, this is the definition of terrorism, especially against civilians. It fits into the definition. State-sponsored terrorism. We know what is happening,” he said.

He noted that there would be a generation of lost children in Myanmar, given the trauma.

Saifuddin bin Abdullah mentioned the genocide in Cambodia and the killing fields in the 1970s, noting the parallels and how ASEAN had failed at that time.

“What are we doing with Myanmar?” he asked.