Type of Incident

Air strikes by fighter jet

Date of Incident(s)

April 20th 2024

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

• A--- Monastery [in B--- foothill], Ha T’Reh village tract[2], Hpa-an Township, Doo Tha Htoo District; [and farms near A--- Monastery.]
• C--- Monastery [in M--- foothill]  and C--- village, in Meh Th’Na village tract, Hpa-an Township, Doo Tha Htoo District [; and farms near C--- Monastery.]

Victims Information

Name

Naw[3] D---

Naw E---

Age

85 years old

12 years old

Gender

Woman

Girl

Ethnicity

Karen

Karen

Marital Status  

Married

-

Occupation

Dependent

Dependent

Religion

Buddhist

Buddhist

Position

- [villager]

- [villager]

Village

C--- village, Meh Th’Na village tract, Hpa-an Township, Doo Tha Htoo District.

C--- village, Meh Th’Na village tract, Hpa-an Township, Doo Tha Htoo District.

Perpetrator Information (Armed Actors)

Name(s)           

Rank

Unit

Base

Commander’s Name

-

-

State Administration Council (SAC)[4] fighter jet

-

-

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information.

[A KHRG field researcher] was first informed by a local leader [position censored for security] about the places that were damaged and the two people [who were injured]. The KHRG researcher went to those places to do documentation and conducted interviews [with one injured victim, Naw D---, and a farmer from G--- village named Saw[5] L---] and took photos [of the two injured villagers and the damaged places]. [The KHRG researcher also spoke informally with a senior monk from C--- Monastery, who was in the incident location during the air strike.]

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

This information could be verified by listening to the audio interviews [with the victim Naw D--- and a farmer from G--- village named Saw L---] and looking at the photos [taken by the KHRG researcher of the injured villagers and the damaged properties].

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail.

On April 20th 2024, the State Administration Council (SAC) conducted air strikes on A---Monastery which is located at B--- foothill, Ha T’Reh village tract, and on C--- Monastery, in M--- foothill, Meh Th’Na village tract, Hpa-an Township, Doo Tha Htoo (Thaton) District.

On April 20th 2024, before 9 pm, an SAC fighter jet dropped two small bombs on A--- Monastery [Ha T’Reh village tract] and two pieces of bomb shrapnel hit the roof of the monastery and also slightly hit the pagoda. Similarly, a small bomb was dropped on Saw H---’s farm which is located close to A--- Monastery and another small bomb was dropped between Saw I---’s and Saw J---’s farms.  

Then, at 9 pm, two bombs were dropped on C--- Monastery [M--- foothill, Meh Th’Na village tract], injuring an [85-year-old] grandma and her [12-year-old] granddaughter and damaging a two-room attached toilet. After hearing the sound of aircraft reconnaissance [the jet flying around], the grandma called her granddaughter, and they went down the stairs of the [stilted] monastery [to go outside]. When they were hiding under a Marian plum tree [next to the monastery], there was a bomb, middle size [exact size unknown], that landed in front of them and exploded. The distance between the place where they were hiding and the place where the bomb landed and exploded was about only 20 feet [6 meters] away. Therefore, the granddaughter’s right arm was hit by the shrapnel of the bomb, and the grandma was hit by the bomb shrapnel on the upper part of her right foot. Her [the grandma’s] three toe tendons on her right foot were cut and [she] sustained injuries to two toe tendons on her left foot. Furthermore, the bomb shrapnel also hit the left side of her neck. A senior monk [name unknown] from C--- Monastery reported to KHRG that he told her to stay in the monastery, but the grandma felt insecure and went downstairs to hide and [was] hit by the bomb shrapnel. A second bomb exploded in front of the two-room attached toilet, [so] the toilet was also hit by a lot of shrapnel from the bomb and was damaged.

Similarly, [after the bombs hit C--- Monastery] a small bomb [from the SAC] landed and exploded near the fence of Saw K---’s house from C--- village, Meh Th’Na village tract, Hpa-an Township.

Then, four bombs [from the SAC] were dropped onto a farm [located close to C--- Monastery] owned by a 60-year-old villager, named Saw L---, from G--- village, in Meh Th’Na village tract. Among those four [bombs], one [bomb] landed inside the buffalo’s fence [but no buffalo were injured]. Saw L--- had planted sugar cane, rambutan plants, and paddy in his farm. Saw L--- explained [to KHRG]: “I just would like to say: how [are we going] to do [deal] with those shrapnel [from the bombs dropped]? Should we hide it in a safe place? It might cut our legs and hands. We cannot collect them [shrapnel] all.” As the bombs landed and exploded on Saw L---’s farm, he was worried that his hands and legs would be injured by shrapnel while doing cultivation on his farm. His farm is located in M--- foothill, the same as C--- Monastery, in Meh Th’Na village tract.

Additionally, one SAC fighter jet dropped seven bombs onto a villager’s farm from C--- village, named Saw N---. Those seven bombs [created craters in the ground and] landed 20 or 30 feet [6 to 9 meters] away from the road [that is used] to travel from C--- village and G--- village. Of those 7 bombs, one bomb landed in the center of the road [and damaged it]. The SAC fighter jet came and did reconnaissance [flying around], which lasted for half an hour [before the bombs were dropped].

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

This information is allowed to be used [by those interviewed, one farmer and Naw D---, who gave KHRG permission for this information to be published].