Protesters angry after police fatally shot a 17-year-old boy set cars and public buildings ablaze in Paris suburbs and unrest spread to some other French cities and towns, despite increased security efforts and the president’s calls for calm. The killing of 17-year-old Nahel during a traffic check Tuesday, captured on video, shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between young people and police in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods around France. "What I see on this video is the execution by police of a 17-year-old kid, in France, in 2023, in broad daylight," said Greens party leader Marine Tondelier. Clashes first erupted Tuesday night in and around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where Nahel was killed, and the government deployed 2,000 police to maintain order Wednesday. But violence resumed after dusk. Police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes through the night that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings, according to a spokesperson for the national police. The national police on Thursday reported fires or skirmishes in multiple cities overnight, from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, though the nexus of tensions was Nanterre and other Paris suburbs. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective on the growing outrage over the explosive combination of excessive force by police and what is being described as "systemic racism" in France, Crystal Fleming, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, joins FRANCE 24's Tom Burges Watson.
Friday, June 30, 2023
Manipur violence | Catholic Church-BJP honeymoon ends in Kerala
The raging violence in Manipur appears to have effectively ended the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala.
Interestingly, it is once again the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Thalassery Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church Mar Joseph Pamplany, earlier accused of co-opting the national party on the pretext of ensuring better prices for rubber, who has taken the plunge by openly disapproving the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Manipur.
Left in a coma for days, imprisoned Egyptian lawyer dies
An imprisoned Egyptian lawyer and human rights defender was in a coma for two days before he was transferred to an intensive care unit where he died earlier this month, human rights groups told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper.
Ali Abbas Barakat had been in prison since 2016. He had been convicted in multiple court cases, but had appealed and been acquitted on each account, including his latest acquittal in May 2022.
On 17 June last year he was transferred from prison to a police station in preparation for his release, but instead, he disappeared. On 7 July, he reappeared at the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo where he was accused of joining a terrorist group.
Lawyers supporting Barakat have said he was tortured during his period of disappearance and have demanded an investigation into his detention and disappearance which they say was without any legal basis.
Stay informed with MEE's newsletters
Sign up to get the latest alerts, insights and analysis, starting with Turkey Unpacked
Earlier this month, the newspaper reported that Barakat, whose health had deterorated as a result of a Hepatitis C infection, felt very tired and was left inside his cell without medical treatment. His family was prevented from checking on or visiting him.
On 10 June, his wife told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he fell into a coma and was transferred in an unconscious state to Badr Prison Hospital near Cairo where he died.
With Barakat's death, the number of deaths in prisons and official detention centres in Egypt has risen to 17 since the beginning of this year. Fifty-two prisoners died in 2022, either as a result of medical negligence, cold or natural death in difficult conditions of detention, according to independent human rights organisations.
UAE questions Lebanese diplomat at airport
Emirati authorities briefly held a Lebanese diplomat travelling through the UAE and interrogated him for several hours before releasing him, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.
Lebanon: Inside Hezbollah’s arsenal
Read More »Nizar Hashem, the honorary consul of Lebanon in the Brazilian city of Curitiba, was on his way from Beirut to China when he was detained for more than nine hours during a layover.
According to Al-Akhbar’s sources, Emirati security officials asked Hashem about his political leanings, and what he knew about Hezbollah’s activity in South America. He told them he had no political affiliation with the party.
While detained, Hashem missed his original flight and was forced to make a new reservation to continue his journey.
The diplomat is a dual Lebanese-Brazilian national and heads a charitable organisation supporting Lebanese orphans and children in Brazil.
Algerian handball players flee in Germany
Two players on Algeria’s national handball team fled during a trip to Germany for a tournament this month, apparently to seek asylum, Arabi21 has reported.
Fatisa Noureddine, 21, and Shayeb Adlan, 19, left all of their belongings in the hotel where they were staying for the World Youth Handball Championships to avoid drawing attention, Algerian Handball Federation president Karima Taleb said.
Local media reports and social media posts have indicated that the players fled in order to seek asylum and remain in Germany.
Taleb said Algeria’s embassy in Germany had informed the local police as well as Algerian authorities of the players’ disappearance. German authorities are conducting an investigation.
Paterson, New Jersey, and Ramallah twinned
Paterson, the third largest city in New Jersey, and Ramallah, the Palestinian city in the West Bank, have signed a twinning agreement, a move welcomed by Arab and Muslim communities in the US, Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported.
The agreement, signed on Monday, will see the two cities cooperate in the fields of technology, culture, education and student exchange, among others.
'We are proud that our city is the first to start raising the Palestinian flag annually on the 15th of May'
- Andre Sayegh, Mayor of Paterson
Twinning, the paper reported, also means supporting the rights of Palestinians to obtain their freedom and establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Paterson hosts the largest community of Palestinians and Arabs in New Jersey, many of whose families are from Ramallah and its surrounding villages.
The agreement comes a year after Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh redubbed the city’s Main Street to Palestine Way.
"We are proud that our city is the first to start raising the Palestinian flag annually on the 15th of May,” Sayegh said, after signing the speech, in reference to Nakba Day which marks the start of the mass forced expulsion of Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1947.
“Our city is the only one that renamed a street Palestine Way. Today, we are proud of signing a friendship and twinning agreement with the city of Ramallah."
Kosovo Designates Two Serb Groups as Terrorist Organisations
PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo's government labelled two Serb groups as terrorist organisations on Thursday in a move that could fuel further tensions in country's volatile north which has seen the worst ethnic violence since the 2008 declaration of independence.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti told a session of the cabinet that Civil Protection (Civilna Zastita) and the North Brigade (Severna Brigada) posed a high level of "threat and danger".
He said the two groups had been "recruiting and training members how to use weapons and carry other combat methods in military bases in Serbia in order to carry out attacks on local and international institutions in Kosovo".
Serbs, who form the majority in the north of Kosovo, say that Civilna Zastita was dissolved in 2015 when Serbs agreed to join Kosovo institutions including police and judiciary and participated in the local election for the first time.
It is not clear who the Severna Brigada represents, when it was established or how it operates. Last year graffiti signed by the group appeared on the streets in the north.
There was no immediate reaction from Belgrade. The only Serb minister in Kurti’s cabinet, Nenad Rasic, voted against the decision and asked the cabinet to reconsider.
While the practical impact of the designation was not immediately clear, it could lead to more arrests being made by Kosovo police, further raising the political temperature in the area.
Last November Kosovo Serbs in the north quit all state jobs including government, police, judiciary and other bodies. And in the past weeks Kosovo has seen its worst ethnic tensions since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Violence erupted in late May after ethnic Albanian mayors took office following a local election in which turnout was just 3.5% after Serbs boycotted the vote.
Some 30 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters late on May. Fifty-two protesters were wounded.
Kosovo's main backers, the United States and European Union have called on Prime Minister Albin Kurti to withdraw the mayors and remove special police used to install them or it will face consequences.
Violent protests continue after police killing of French-Algerian teen
Violent protests broke out across France in the early hours of Thursday, in a second night of unrest over the police killing of a French-Algerian teenager.
Cars were set ablaze and fireworks were shot towards police officers in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where Nael M, 17, was shot dead on Tuesday morning.
There were confrontations between police and protesters in other French cities, including Toulouse, Lille, Dijon and Amiens.
Overnight police arrested 150 people, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
"A night of unbearable violence against symbols of the Republic: town halls, schools and police stations set on fire or attacked," he tweeted.
Stay informed with MEE's newsletters
Sign up to get the latest alerts, insights and analysis, starting with Turkey Unpacked
"Support for the police, gendarmes and firefighters who face up with courage. Shame on those who did not call for calm."
President Emmanuel Macron held an early morning crisis meeting with his ministers, where he called the violent unrest "unjustifiable".
"The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also schools and town halls... against institutions and the Republic," Macron told ministers on Thursday. "These [attacks] are absolutely unjustifiable".
A day earlier, he described the fatal shooting as "inexcusable".
'Revolt for my son'
Nael M was driving in Nanterre on Tuesday morning when police pulled him over for road misconduct.
Footage online shows an officer shooting the teenager at point-blank range while he was in the car, causing the vehicle to crash into a post. He died shortly afterwards from bullet wounds to the chest.
Police initially said that one officer shot at the teenager because he was driving his car at him, but the footage appears to show the two police officers standing by the side of a stationary car.
One police officer points a weapon at the driver, while a voice can be heard saying "You are going to get a bullet in the head".
The 38-year-old police officer accused of shooting Nael M has been detained on homicide charges.
The mother of the teenager posted a video on TikTok calling for a tribute march for her son on Thursday. “This is a revolt for my son,” she said.
Several French users took to social media to denounce the police shooting, including French footballer Kylian Mbappe and actor Omar Sy.
The killing was the third fatal shooting during a traffic stop in 2023. There were 13 such killings last year.
The majority of victims of such killings since 2017 are of Arab or Black origin, according to tally compiled by Reuters.
Muslim countries condemn Quran burning in Sweden
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Egypt were among many Muslim-majority countries to condemn the burning of the Quran by a man in Sweden during the festival of Eid-al-Adha on Wednesday.
Morocco recalled its ambassador to Sweden following the incident in Stockholm, and summoned Sweden's chargé d'affaires in Rabat to express its "strong condemnation of this attack and its rejection of this unacceptable act".
The UAE also summoned the Swedish ambassador in protest. Iraq and neighbouring Jordan also both summoned Sweden's top diplomats in their countries.
Salwan Momika tore up several pages of the holy book, stomping on it and setting pages alight outside the largest mosque in the Swedish capital.
Momika carried out the provocative act under heavy police presence after being granted permission to do so by Swedish authorities. Despite allowing it on free speech grounds, Swedish police later launched an investigation on the basis of "agitation".
"These events inflame the feelings of Muslims around the world and represent a dangerous provocation for them," Iraq's foreign ministry said.
In Baghdad, dozens of supporters of influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr briefly stormed the compound of the Swedish embassy in the afternoon, but did not enter the building. The protesters raised pictures of Sadr, chanted his name, and left soon after security forces were deployed.
Swedish embassy staff were warned the day before and only security staff were present at the compound.
The Middle East Eye correspondent in Baghdad reported that no one was harmed and there was no damage done. Sadr and other political leaders have called for protests on Friday.
Egypt meanwhile described it as a "disgraceful act provoking the feelings of Muslims", while Kuwait called for the perpetrators of such "hostile acts" to be brought to justice.
The Arab League, an intergovernmental organisation representing Arab-speaking countries across the Middle East and Africa, described it as an "assault on the core of our Islamic faith".
There were also condemnations from Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Palestinian foreign ministry, and the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
In January, protests were held across Muslim countries after far-right Danish-Swedish political activist Rasmus Paludan set fire to the Quran, followed by an hour-long diatribe against Islam and immigration in Sweden.
Paludan was denied entry into the UK in March after he said he planned to burn the Quran in a public square in the English town of Wakefield.
'Vile protest'
The Taliban government in Afghanistan called Momika's Quran burning an act of "utter contempt towards this noble religion".
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon called on Muslim and Arab nations to take steps to compel Sweden and other countries to prevent it from occurring again in future.
Influential Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for protests outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad to demand the removal of the country's ambassador.
It was also condemned by Turkey's foreign minister, who labelled it a "vile protest in Sweden against our holy book on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha".
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "We will eventually teach the Western monuments of arrogance that insulting Muslims is not a freedom of thought."
Middle East Eye reported earlier this month that Erdogan had closed the door on Sweden joining Nato at an upcoming summit in Vilnius, saying Stockholm hasn’t done enough to uphold its promises because the country recently allowed supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to demonstrate.
The event left Washington trying to strike a balance between supporting freedom of expression and religion.
"We do condemn it. We are deeply concerned by the act," Matthew Miller, a US State Department spokesperson, said on Thursday. "The US of course supports freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly."
The presence of people linked to the PKK in Sweden has been a major stumbling block for the country’s attempts to join Nato following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey has a veto on any country joining the alliance and has promised to use it until its demands over the alleged PKK presence in Sweden have been addressed.
Ankara cancelled a planned visit by Sweden's defence minister in January following its decision to allow Paludan's protest to take place outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
‘We Will Not Surrender’: The Extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin
On June 19, a large Israeli military force raided the northern Palestinian town and refugee camp of Jenin from multiple directions. Not only did the raid fail, it backfired, and it also created a precedent in Israel’s decades-long war on the ever-rebellious Palestinian region.
Israel killed eight Palestinians and wounded 91 more, following hours of clashes involving Israeli soldiers, on the one hand, and unified Palestinian Resistance groups, on the other.
Israel only admitted to the wounding of eight of its soldiers, with some Israeli media outlets speaking of critical injuries among the invading troops and others claiming only moderate wounds.
The reality on the ground, however, suggested that an extraordinary battle had taken place. Locally produced videos showed Israeli military vehicles blown up, engulfed in clouds of fire and smoke, among them the Panther troops carrier – known as Nimr – a monstrous, well-fortified vehicle used in moderate to heavy combat.
A total of seven vehicles, along with a military helicopter were blown up or damaged in what was meant to be a routine Israeli raid on Jenin, which has often resulted in the killing of several so-called "wanted" Palestinians – a reference to fighters who resist the Israeli military occupation.
The military wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad – the main resistance forces in Jenin, in addition to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – issued statements detailing the courage of their fighters and celebrating the legacy of those who have been killed in the fighting.
But not all Palestinians killed were fighters. Israel targets civilians, including children, women, medics, and journalists, as a matter of course. One of the Jenin victims was a 15-year-old boy named Ahmed Saqr. Another is a 14-year-old girl named Sadil Ghassan Turkman. A journalist, Hazem Emad Nasser, was also wounded.
One of those killed, Amjad Aref Abu Jaas, is the father of a Palestinian youth, Wasim, who was killed by the Israeli army during a previous invasion of Jenin, on January 25.
The fact that a son and a father were both killed, a few months apart, by Israel is indicative of Israel’s relationship with Jenin. Israel sees Jenin as the beating heart of Resistance – armed or otherwise – in the Occupied West Bank. Therefore, Jenin has been Israel’s main target for decades, simply to downgrade – never crush – the intensity of the Resistance there.
Israel knows that crushing the Resistance in Jenin is not possible. Though the far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government are constantly making such a demand, the Israeli military understands the difficulty – in fact, the impossibility of such a task.
Generational Resistance
The Jenin refugee camp was established in 1953 by the United Nations Palestinian Refugees Agency (UNRWA). The inhabitants of the camp are refugees who were expelled by Israeli Zionist militias and gangs during the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine in 1947-48.
The camp has grown in terms of size and population over the years, though poverty and neglect have remained its main features. The history of the camp and its inhabitants has been the main drive behind their ongoing resistance.
In my 2003 book, Searching Jenin, I detailed the accounts of many of the camp’s residents as they described the legendary battle and the subsequent massacre of April 2002.
The pride and toughness of the residents of Jenin struck me, although I am quite familiar with the tenacity of the resilience of Palestinians, in general. Despite the killing of dozens of its inhabitants, the wounding of hundreds, the arrests of many and the destruction of entire neighborhoods, the Jenin residents insisted that the resistance is not over and that the next generation will soon continue what they have begun.
Writing about Jenin in recent months, I realize that many of the family and clan names are repeated, whether in the last name of fighters and martyrs, but also journalists, medics and civilian victims are mentioned. Somehow Jenin, though in near complete isolation, ongoing suppression, and utter neglect, has been resurrected from the ashes of the past.
I wonder if the young Israeli soldiers who keep invading Jenin, killing a few Palestinians at a time with each invasion, know anything about that history, about where these refugees came from, and that, no matter how violent and well-armed their bloody quests can be, Jenin will never surrender.
In other words, for Israel, the battle of Jenin is already lost.
It Is Not Over
Jenin terrifies Israel, because it is a representation of a much greater fight undertaken by Palestinians in besieged Gaza and throughout the Occupied West Bank. They know that all Palestinians are watching the events underway in Jenin – but also in Nablus and its environs, Al-Khalil (Hebron), Jericho, and more. When Jenin resists, Palestinian Resistance rises in unison.
In April 2002, during the invasion of major Palestinian cities of the West Bank, the destruction of Jenin was meant to be the tragic end of an equally tragic Palestinian story. The survivors eventually trickled back into the camp, collected and buried the bodies, often in mass graves, looked after the wounded, and slowly began rebuilding their shattered lives.
Then, all of Palestine was bleeding; Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Gaza were reeling under the heavy weight of Israeli tanks, which left in their wake massive destruction and a high death toll. Israel emerged bruised but triumphant. The Palestinian Authority’s police force was restructured around Israeli priorities and with American training and funds. Palestine, it was thought, was squarely defeated.
But the prophecy of those I interviewed two decades ago turned out to be true: The resistance is not over, and the next generation will soon continue what we have begun.
Since then, many of my eyewitnesses have died – old age, broken hearts, Israeli bullets, and so on. Some are currently in prison. But others are still alive to remind us that freedom is precious and that the desire for justice can never be killed or defeated, no matter the enemy’s firepower or the sacrifices. Because it is innate and God-given, and because Jenin knows its history too well.
Pentagon Says Chinese Balloon Did Not Collect Data While Over US
The Pentagon said Thursday that the Chinese balloon that wound up over the US in February did not collect data while it flew over US territory.
“We believe that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States or flying over the United States, and certainly the efforts that we made contributed, I’m sure,” said Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
Ryder made the comments when asked about a Wall Street Journal report that said the balloon contained US-made equipment. “I don’t have any specifics to provide as it pertains to the [People’s Republic of China] high altitude balloon and any potential US components,” he said.
For their part, Beijing has said the balloon was a civilian weather research device, while the Biden administration says it was a surveillance device. At this point, it has become clear that China did not intend to fly the balloon over the US, something President Biden recently acknowledged.
“That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States,” Biden said.
The Balloon incident caused a frenzy in Washington, causing Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a trip to China. Members of Congress demanded President Biden shoot down the balloon, which he eventually did when it was off the coast of South Carolina.
Following the downing of the Chinese balloon, the US downed three unidentified objects using four $400,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles. At least one was likely a small hobby balloon, known as a pico balloon, which can be purchased for as little as $12, depending on the type.
The White House has acknowledged that the three objects could have been “totally benign.” President Biden said they were likely “balloons tied to private companies, recreational or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research.”
Thursday, June 29, 2023
India: Rahul Gandhi's convoy stopped by Indian police in Manipur, teargas fired
GUWAHATI, India, June 29 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped by local police on Thursday and teargas fired near his convoy when the 53-year old scion of the Congress party was on his way to visit the violence-hit northeastern Manipur state.
At least 80 people have been killed and more than 40,000 have fled their homes since clashes broke out in Manipur in early May between ethnic groups. Sporadic incidents of violence and arson still occur despite the heavy presence of security forces in parts of the remote state, which borders Myanmar.
Gandhi was travelling to Churachandpur district, one of the worst affected areas in the violence, when security forces stopped his convoy at Bishnupur, about 20 kms from the capital Imphal, citing security fears.
Teargas shells were then fired to disperse a crowd that had started gathering in the area.
"Seeing the ground situation, we stopped him from moving forward and advised him to travel to Churachandpur via helicopter," Bishnupur police chief Heisnam Balram Singh told Reuters TV partner ANI.
"There is a possibility of a grenade attack along the highway through which Rahul Gandhi is moving. Keeping his security and safety in mind, we've not allowed him."
Gandhi's convoy returned to Imphal and he reached Churachandpur by helicopter, Meghachandra Singh, Manipur state Congress president, said.
Violence between members of the Kuki ethnic group, who mostly live in the hills, and Meiteis, the dominant community in the lowlands, erupted on May 3 as a result of resentment over economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education reserved for hill people.
Several rounds of peace talks between the groups have broken down and failed to completely stop violent incidents in the state governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political party.
Reporting by Zarir Hussain; writing by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Frank Jack Daniel
‘My entire body is shaken by rage’: Myanmar villager recounts horror of junta airstrike that killed five of her siblings
Published 12:44 AM
EDT, Thu June 29, 2023
The aftermath of an
airstrike on Nyaung Kone village, in Pale township, Myanmar's Sagaing region,
on June 27. From Zaw Htet/Facebook
CNN — Ma Khin Hla and her five
siblings didn’t have time to run when a fighter jet buzzed over their village
in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region.
“We six siblings were
sitting and talking at home as our brother monk was visiting us from town,”
said Ma Khin Hla, 67, who asked to use a pseudonym for security reasons.
“We first heard the
noises from a jet fighter. We didn’t get to run as it immediately dropped
bombs.”
When she opened her
eyes after the strike on Tuesday, Ma Khin Hla said she saw her siblings’ bodies
scattered around her.
“All were lying dead
nearby me,” she said. “My entire body is shaken by rage and numb in sadness to
see my siblings killed.”
At least 10 civilians
died in the airstrike and more than a dozen others were wounded, local
officials and eyewitnesses said, the latest deadly attack in the military
junta’s violent campaign for control since seizing power in a coup.
Three bombs dropped by
a military fighter jet on Tuesday landed close to a monastery in Nyaung Kone
village, Pale township, according to Zaw Htet, head of the town’s People’s
Administration.
“Three women and seven
men, in total 10 people were killed including a monk, while about 15 people
were injured and sent to hospital,” Zaw Htet told CNN.
The official also said
13 houses were destroyed in the attack.
A monastery hit by the junta
airstrike in Pale township, Sagaing region, Myanmar. From
Zaw Htet/Facebook
Battles between the
military and resistance groups have unfolded almost daily across Myanmar since
army general Min Aung Hlaing seized power in February 2021, plunging the
country into economic chaos and fresh civil war.
Airstrikes and ground
attacks on what the military calls “terrorist” targets occur regularly and have
killed thousands of civilians, including children, according to monitoring
groups. Whole villages have been burned down by junta soldiers and schools,
clinics and hospitals destroyed in the attacks.
Enter your email to sign up for CNN's
"Meanwhile in China" Newsletter.
close dialog
What’s happening in China and what does it mean
for the rest of the world?
[ ]
By subscribing you agree to our
[ ]
The village struck
Tuesday was part of a self-governed area in the Sagaing region not under junta
control.
Administration official
Zaw Htet said there were no resistance fighters – known as Peoples Defense
Forces (PDF) – in the village and accused the junta of targeting civilians.
“They (the military)
just came and dropped the bombs,” he said. “What they did was very inhuman and
cruel as if the village was the military target.”
CNN cannot
independently verify the incident, but eyewitness accounts match reports in
local media and from Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government.
CNN reached out to
junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the airstrike but did
not receive a response.
Images from the
aftermath of the attack, obtained by CNN, show the burnt embers of destroyed
houses and villagers dousing water on the smoldering remains.
Ma Khin Hla, whose five
siblings were killed, said she has been forced to take shelter with relatives
in another village.
“My house was burned to
ashes … (there’s) nothing left,” she said. “We were farmers … just ordinary
people working in the farm.”
Ar Lu, another resident
of Nyaung Kone village, told CNN he helped to extinguish the fires and bury
those who died.
“We buried the people
in a pit altogether,” he said.
Nay Phone Latt,
spokesperson for the shadow National Unity Government confirmed the deadly
attack.
“I condemn SAC (State
Administration Council) on their target against the civilians,” he told CNN,
using the official name of the ruling junta. “They are deliberately doing this
in order to instill the fear in the people.”
In April, a junta air attack on Pazigyi village, also in Sagaing
region, killed 186 people, including dozens of children, according to the NUG
and eyewitnesses.
The military said it
was targeting “terrorists” but eyewitnesses interviewed by CNN said those
targeted were unarmed civilians enjoying a community celebration.
That attack sparked
international outcry and increased calls for a ban on aviation fuel imports as
well as a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar.
In May, a United Nations report found the junta had imported at
least $1 billion in weapons and military-related equipment since its coup, with
much of the equipment coming from individuals and businesses in Russia, China
and Singapore.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)