Myanmar military accused of possible war crime after 34 killed in hospital strike
Hospital in an area controlled by a leading rebel force ‘completely destroyed’
At least 34 patients and medical staff have been killed in a Myanmar military airstrike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine, rescue workers and witnesses said, in what rights experts warn could amount to a war crime.
About 80 other people were injured in the attack Wednesday night on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army, an armed rebel group.
The ruling military has not announced news of any attack in the area.
Wai Hun Aung, a senior official for rescue services in Rakhine, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs at 9.13pm with one hitting the hospital’s recovery ward and the other landing near the hospital’s main building.
He said he arrived at the hospital early Thursday to provide assistance and recorded the deaths of 17 women and 17 men. He said that most of the hospital building was destroyed by the bombs, and taxis and motorbikes near the hospital were also damaged.
Rakhine-based online media posted photos and videos showing damaged buildings and debris including medical equipment.
“The Mrauk U General Hospital was completely destroyed,” Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan Army told the Reuters news agency.
“The high number of casualties occurred because the hospital took a direct hit.”
The hospital has been the main source of health care for people in Rakhine, where most hospitals have closed because of Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, said Mr Wai Hun Aung.
It was reopened after doctors gathered in Mrauk-U to provide much-needed medical services.
Mrauk-U, located 530km (326 miles) northwest of Yangon, the country’s largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February last year.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said he condemns the attacks “in [the] strongest possible terms” and demanded an independent investigation into the deadly strike.
“Such attacks may amount to a war crime. I call for investigations and those responsible to be held to account. The fighting must stop now,” he said in a video message.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has seized a strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships.
Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, was the site of a brutal army counterinsurgency operation in 2017 that drove about 740,000 minority Rohingya Muslims to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh. There is still ethnic tension between the Buddhist Rakhine and the Rohingya.
Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government, established by elected lawmakers who were barred from taking their seats in 2021, condemned the airstrike.
The organisation urged the international community to pressure the military to end its actions, take action against perpetrators and provide humanitarian assistance as soon as possible.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power in 2021, overthrowing the government of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Hundreds of people, including Suu Kyi and her party’s senior leaders, were arrested, prompting massive protests. The military rulers responded with a brutal crackdown that escalated into an armed conflict, with some regions turning into active war zones as ethnic militias fought the army.
Last year Independent TV released a documentary charting Suu Kyi's fall from grace, entitled Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi, and there have recently been growing calls for her release amid concerns over her deteriorating health.
The government has stepped up airstrikes ahead of planned 28 December elections against the armed pro-democracy People’s Defense Force. The party is closely associated with the National Unity Government. Opponents of military rule charge that the polls will be neither free not fair, and are mainly an effort to legitimise the army retaining power.
Additional reporting by agencies