Myanmar army killed over 700 civilians in six months: UN

GENEVA

Myanmar's military was responsible for more than 700 civilian deaths over the six-month election period last year, the United Nations said on June 22.

A fresh U.N. report covering the period from last August, when Myanmar's military announced elections would be held, through the conclusion of the voting period at the end of January, said credible sources had verified "a minimum of 702 civilian deaths" over that time.

"Of these, 224 were women and 153 children," the report from the U.N. rights office said, adding that "air strikes remained the single largest cause of destruction and suffering."

"At least 505 civilians, including 175 women and 112 children, or 57 percent of the total, were killed in attacks carried out with jet fighters, drones, para-motors and gyrocopters," it said.

Asked who was responsible for the killings, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP that "those 702 are attributable to the Myanmar military."

"That doesn't mean that there are no civilian casualties attributable to other armed groups," she stressed.

Civil war engulfed Myanmar in 2021 when the military staged a coup, ending a decade-long democratic interlude and deposing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar was ruled directly by the military for five years after the coup, before the junta held deeply restricted polls which this year delivered a walkover win for its allies in civilian politics.

New MPs elected coup leader Min Aung Hlaing as president in a transition which democracy watchdogs derided as a ploy to rebrand his continuing rule.