YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta denied on Saturday killing civilians in a hospital air strike that left more than 30 people dead.
A military jet bombed late Wednesday the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, two aid workers said.
“Those killed or injured were not civilians, but terrorists and their supporters,” said an article in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).
The ruling junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of the country’s civil war, conflict monitors say, after seizing power in a 2021 coup ending a decade-long experiment with democracy.
The United Nations on Thursday demanded an investigation, saying the attack could constitute a war crime.
Health workers and patients were killed, and “hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X.
Rakhine state is controlled almost in its entirety by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist force active long before the military toppled the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The separatist force said in a statement that 33 people were killed and 76 wounded in the strike.
People’s Defense Forces (PDF) have also risen up to oppose the military coup four years ago.
The junta “carried out necessary security measures and launched a Counter-Terrorism Operation on 10 December against the buildings being used as a base by AA and PDF terrorists,” GNLM said.
Myanmar junta denies killing civilians in hospital strike
https://arab.news/5y82r
Myanmar junta denies killing civilians in hospital strike
- The ruling junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of the country’s civil war, conflict monitors say
China says Philippines distorted facts about incident near disputed atoll
- The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained”
BEIJING: China’s defense ministry accused the Philippines on Wednesday of distorting the facts about an incident involving the Chinese coast guard and Filipino fishermen near a South China Sea shoal, a charge Manila strongly rejected.
The Philippine coast guard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Friday, actions the Philippine defense secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane.”
The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained,” and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation,” according to a statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organized and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the ministry said. “Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coast guard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150 km (95 miles) west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.
