Teachers at a school in Myanmar hit by a military helicopter attack last week have spoken out about the horrific horror of the attack – including seeing a wounded child screaming in pain and begging to die.
Violence on Friday at a school in Let Yet Kone village in Sagaing region killed 14 people – 12 of them children, the youngest being seven years old.
The United Nations, the European Union and human rights groups have condemned the incident, in which the Myanmar military said it attacked rebels using civilians as human shields.
Some children were playing outside while others were attending class when two helicopter gunships flew in and opened fire with machine guns and heavy weapons, a teacher said.
“One girl was hit in the back of the head … a lot of blood came out,” the teacher said in a phone interview with AFP, describing his desperate efforts to provide first aid.
The students tried to hide under tables as smoke billowed around them, added the teacher, whom AFP is not naming for safety reasons.
The helicopters then landed and troops poured out, stormed the school grounds and ordered everyone inside to come out, the teacher said.
Some children, whose legs were badly injured, left a trail of blood as they crawled out, the teacher said, while others were too badly injured to move from their hiding places.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the military seized power in a coup last February. According to a local monitoring group, nearly 2,300 civilians were killed in a crackdown on dissidents.
The Sagaing region in the north-west of the country has seen some of the fiercest fighting, with entire villages burned to the ground in clashes between anti-coup militants and the military.
– ‘Kill me, I can’t take the pain’ –
The mother of a wounded student asked the soldiers to let her into the classroom where her seven-year-old son was bleeding to death, the teacher said.
“The soldier yelled at her, ‘Shall I shoot you and kill you?'” the teacher said.
Their son was bleeding so profusely it was almost “like he was drowning in the water,” they added.
The mother and her dying son were later reunited – he was missing a hand and a leg.
“The boy was still alive and he said, ‘Mom, it hurts a lot, kill me, kill me, I can’t take the pain,'” the teacher said.
The crying mother asked the soldiers not to take away her son’s body, but they insisted he was not dead and took him to the hospital, the teacher said.
“The mother shouted, ‘Let me make a funeral for my baby.'”
The teacher later watched as soldiers tossed children’s severed body parts and bloodied clothing into rice bags.
A second teacher described how children rushed into the house as the helicopters closed in, only to have the building hit by a large explosion.
“I saw a child get hit and he was screaming for help. He was covered in blood and kept screaming and asking for help, but I didn’t dare go out to help him,” the second teacher told AFP by phone.
As the shooting continued, the second teacher decided to leave the building and took 20 students to hide under a large tamarind tree while the wounded boy kept screaming for help.
AFP was unable to independently verify the teachers’ accounts.
– Military accuses rebels –
Many in Let Yet Kone Village are still anxiously awaiting news of some students missing since the attack.
There are no immediate plans to reopen the school, which had nearly 250 students and more than 20 teachers.
The junta said it sent troops to the village in helicopters after receiving a tip that fighters from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) – an ethnic rebel group – and a local anti-coup militia were moving weapons in the area.
The military accused the rebels of using civilians as human shields and said it had seized mines and explosives from the village.
“Security members conducted necessary medical treatment and arranged to send patients to a nearby hospital,” the military said in a statement.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun on Tuesday accused the KIA of taking villagers to a monastery and firing on troops from there.
