Press Statement
For Immediate Release
Children, Clergy Killed, Church Destroyed in Junta Bombings in Chin State in Earthquake Aftermath
12 April 2025 – Chin State, Myanmar: The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) strongly condemns the Myanmar military junta’s latest wave of deadly airstrikes deliberately targeting civilians and protected sites in Chin State. These attacks—launched in the immediate aftermath of a devastating earthquake—represent a cruel and calculated attempt by a desperate regime to reassert control by terrorizing an already devastated population.
On 9 April 2025, a village in Mindat Township came under aerial bombardment, killing six civilians, including an eight-month-old baby and a Christian pastor from the Assembly of God Church. The church itself, along with multiple homes, was completely destroyed in the assault—an unmistakable and illegal attack on civilians and a place of worship.
In a separate incident in Tedim Township, another six people were killed, including four children under the age of 17, when junta aircraft dropped bombs on a residential neighborhood. These airstrikes were launched without any discernible military objective, underscoring the regime’s intent to inflict terror and suffering on the civilian population.
Launching military attacks in the wake of a natural disaster reveals the junta’s utter depravity. As its grip on power weakens and resistance strengthens across the country, the military is resorting to scorched-earth tactics to fabricate the illusion of control. This deliberate exploitation of a humanitarian disaster to intensify violence is a clear act of state terrorism.
“These attacks are not only cowardly—they are criminal,” said Salai Mang Hre Lian, Human Rights Program Manager at CHRO and recipient of the 2024 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Defenders Award.
“Bombing villages, churches, and children in the middle of a humanitarian disaster shows the junta’s utter contempt for life, faith, and the laws of war. This is a regime weaponizing tragedy to terrorize the population and project dominance where it has none.”
CHRO asserts that these airstrikes—particularly those targeting civilian homes and protected religious sites—amount to grave breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.
We call on the international community—including the United Nations, ASEAN, and democratic governments—to act decisively and without delay. The junta’s atrocities must not go unanswered.
CHRO makes the following urgent calls:
- Impose targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo to cut off the junta’s capacity to carry out further atrocities.
- Support international accountability efforts, including through the International Criminal Court and universal jurisdiction cases.
- Ensure that humanitarian aid is not channeled through junta-controlled mechanisms.
The military regime has a well-documented record of weaponizing humanitarian aid—denying it to populations in resistance-held areas, diverting supplies to loyalist forces, and using relief delivery as a tool of surveillance and control. Aid delivered through state-controlled systems risks directly enabling the junta’s war machine and must be avoided.
We call on donors, UN agencies, and humanitarian actors to work directly with trusted, community-based organizations and local humanitarian networks that uphold the principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality—especially those operating in areas outside junta control.
The people of Chin State and all of Myanmar deserve peace, dignity, and justice—not bombs from a crumbling dictatorship, nor aid that strengthens their oppressor. This is a defining moment for the international community to uphold principled humanitarianism and show unwavering solidarity with the people of Myanmar.
For more information, please contact:
Salai Mang Hre Lian
Human Rights Program Manager, CHRO
Signal: +91 96128 54821
✉️ Email: [email protected]
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