HRW slams Myanmar junta’s increased use of paramotor bombing attacks on civilians

Mizzima

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on 9 October condemning the Myanmar junta’s growing use of paramotors in bombing attacks on civilians. The human rights group calls on the international community to step up sanctions on the military junta that target its revenue and ability to import aviation fuel.

The text of the statement by HRW Asia Division Researcher Shayne Bauchner is as follows.

On Monday evening, Myanmar military paramotors, or motorized paragliders, dropped munitions on a candlelit Buddhist festival in Sagaing Region, killing at least 21 people, including three children as young as 2.

Hundreds of villagers had gathered in a primary school compound to celebrate the Thadingyut holiday and demonstrate against military abuses in the embattled region.Junta airstrikes have surged this year, including unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure––schools, hospitals, religious sites, and displacement camps––killing and wounding thousands.

Some of these strikes appear to be deliberate attacks on civilians intended as a form of collective punishment in areas that support opposition armed groups.The laws of war prohibit attacks that do not or cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants.

The junta’s increasing use of armed paramotors––from which pilots drop 120mm mortar rounds “without any capacity for precision targeting,” according to the United Nations––has created grave new threats to civilians. More than 135 paramotor attacks have been reported since December 2024.