Army attacks in eastern Myanmar worst in decades

Bangkok: While Russia’s war in Ukraine dominates global attention, Myanmar’s military is targeting civilians in air and ground attacks on a scale unmatched in the country since World War II, according to a longtime relief worker who spent almost three months in a combat zone in the Southeast Asian nation.

David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian relief organization, told The Associated Press that the military’s jets and helicopters stage frequent attacks in the areas of eastern Myanmar where he and his volunteers operate, bringing medical and food aid to civilians caught in conflict.

Ground forces are also firing artillery — indiscriminately, he said — causing thousands to flee their homes. Video shot by his group’s members includes rare images of repeated air strikes by Myanmar military aircraft in Kayah State – also known as Karenni State — causing a number of civilian deaths.

An analyst for New York-based Human Rights Watch said the air attacks constitute “war crimes.” Myanmar’s military seized power last year, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

After security forces cracked down violently on large, peaceful street demonstrations opposing the takeover, thousands of ordinary people formed militia units, dubbed People’s Defense Forces, to fight back. Many are loosely allied with well-established ethnic minority armed groups — such as the Karenni, the Karen and the Kachin — that have been fighting the central government for more than half a century, seeking greater autonomy in the frontier regions.

Despite overwhelming superiority in numbers and weaponry, the military has failed to crush this grassroots resistance movement. —AP