Justice For All’s Burma Task Force Urges Urgent UN Security Council Discussion on Burma

Justice For All joined together with 546 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations (CSOs), in supporting the United Kingdom’s request for an urgent Security Council discussion on Burma (Myanmar) to address the illegal military junta’s worst civilian massacre since its failed coup, as well as the junta’s categorical refusal to comply with Security Council Resolution 2669 on Burma (December 2022).

On Tuesday 11 April 2023, the illegal military junta in Burma (Myanmar) launched an aerial attack on a civilian gathering of around 300 people in Pa Zi Gyi Village, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region. At least 168 people were killed, including 24 women and 40 children. During the attack, a junta’s fighter jet flew over the village in the morning and dropped two bombs on the gathering. It was followed by a junta helicopter gunship that then opened fire on the crowd. Some of the victims’ bodies were so badly maimed they could not be identified. A second attack on the same location was launched by the junta in the evening, with four more bombs dropped, while victims’ bodies were still being retrieved.

Imam Saffet Catovic, director of Justice For All (JFA) United Nations Operations observed, “The illegal Tatmadaw jjunta’s murderous massacres by its air force this past week against the unarmed civilian population of Sagaing region of Burma/Myanmar which included the killing of elders, women and children is a dramatic escalation and evidence of ever increasing brutality and state terror and the broadening of the regime’s target list beyond the Rohingya Muslims and other long time persecuted minorities targeted for genocide in the Rakhine state region. The Security Council needs to meet immediately on this life and death matter and take immediate action as provided for under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to halt these naked acts of aggression and breach of the peace.”

JFA through its Burma Task Force (BTF) , a coalition of 38 US and Canadian Muslim organizations, has been advocating for the Rohingya and ending the genocide in Burma since 2012.