Salween Peace Park (SPP) representatives have expressed outrage following deadly attacks by the Myanmar junta in Karen State.
Speaking out in a press release today, the SPP said that at 1 am the Burma Army launched an airstrike on a Karen village in the Salween Peace Park, killing two civilians and injuring six civilians including children, elders and one young girl. The attack took place in the eastern part of the SPP at Ta Dwee Koh village, Ma Htaw village tract, Dweh Lo Township, Mutraw district, Karen State. At the same time, the Burma Army dropped three bombs in another village tract in the centre of the SPP, where no deaths have been reported.
As the SPP notes, the Myanmar Army, which has taken over the country as the State Administration Council (SAC), has been launching indiscriminate airstrikes, bombings, and artillery shelling continuously in the Salween Peace Park (located in Mutraw District, Karen State) every day since January 1, 2022.
In addition to this morning’s incident, another attack also took place on January 29, when the
Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF) - which serves directly under the Myanmar Army’s command launched mortars into Htee Law Thee Hta village, (in the eastern side of the SPP) and killed a three-month-old baby girl and a 20-year-old woman in the Salween Peace Park.
The SAC also launched an airstrike on a KNLA camp along the Salween River on January 31- which is Karen Revolution Day - destroying one library and several houses. This area is close to a number of Karen villages and IDP camps.
In summary, from January 1 until now, at least 7 civilians have been killed and no less than 26 civilians
Injured - including elders, children, and women as a result of these bombings and attacks.
The people of the Salween Peace Park hope that the international community will intervene and help oust the dictatorial SAC-Myanmar Army which has illegally taken control of the country, killed countless of civilians, and endangered the lives of millions of civilians in Burma.
As the majority of the country have joined the resistance against the military dictatorship, we the people of the Salween Peace Park call for the international community including the United Nations and others to assist us through military and economic actions in our long struggle against the Myanmar Army for the sake of civilians caught in the crossfire.
As one indigenous man from the Salween Peace Park has stated: “We hope that the powerful countries and the UN will support the ethnic armed groups and PDFs in their fight against Burma Army. For decades we have been taking care of our lands using our indigenous methods of conservation and
governance. Our leaders have tried to build peace through political dialogue and peaceful actions. But the Burma military continued to use violence to sustain their power to exploit the resources of our country. Now the whole country is standing up to fight against them. We need the support of powerful countries for things like anti-aircraft weapons, so we can defend against the Burma Army’s jets. We have been calling for no fly zones and bans on selling weapons to the Burma Army, but no one has listened to us. We hope that international actors will help us in the same way they joined together in their fight to eliminate other evil and illegitimate regimes, such as the ISIS, so that we can finally have a taste of peace.”
