Thadingyut festival (PTI)
At least 40 people were killed and around 80 others were injured in a paramotor attack on a festival and protest in central Myanmar on Monday, a spokesperson for the exiled National Unity Government told the BBC.Hundreds had gathered in Chaung U township in central Myanmar on Monday evening for the Thadingyut full moon festival when the military dropped bombs on the crowd, according to a member of the organizing committee.The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the gathering included both the festival and an anti-junta demonstration.”The committee alerted people and one-third of the crowd managed to flee,” the woman was quoted as saying by AFP. “But immediately, one motor-powered paraglider flew right over the crowd”, dropping two bombs on the centre of the gathering.”Children were completely torn apart,” she added.She said that once another motorized paraglider flying overhead had left the area, people rushed in to assist the wounded.Locals said that the damage from Monday’s bombings made it difficult to identify the victims.”As of this morning, we were still collecting body parts from the ground — pieces of flesh, limbs, parts of bodies that were blown apart,” the woman added. The junta has increasingly turned to paramotors due to a shortage of aircraft and helicopters, a situation compounded by international sanctions that have made it harder for the regime to acquire military equipment, as cited by the BBC.In a statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International described the junta’s use of motorized paragliders to target communities as part of a “disturbing trend” in the region.Joe Freeman, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher, said the attack “should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection.”Myanmar has been engulfed in civil conflict since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, prompting pro-democracy forces to take up arms and align with ethnic armed groups against the junta.At the candlelight vigil, participants protested military conscription and the upcoming elections while calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.The country is scheduled to hold general elections in December, the first since the 2021 coup. Critics, however, argue that the vote will not be free or fair, and is likely to enable the junta to maintain unchecked control.
