I. War Crimes
56
On November 5, Colonel Naw Bu of the KIA told Fortify Rights: “Around 11 a.m. yesterday, artillery
shelling from the SAC dropped on China’s side. … There was one shell, and it hit three [Chinese]
civilians, and one died. The other two are injured and are at the hospital.”125 On November 7, Beijing
confirmed Chinese casualties in the incident.126 However, Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry
spokesperson, did not specify whether Chinese civilians were killed or wounded, or the precise
location of the incident.127
Between October 31 and November 1, 2023, Laiza residents sent Fortify Rights several mobile phone
videos showing junta air force attacks on Laiza.128 One video shows how another aerial attack on Alen
Bum triggered a series of air-raid sirens in China, warning Chinese residents of incoming attacks
from the junta.129
On March 7, 2024, the KIA launched a coordinated attack against Myanmar military outposts along
the Myitkyina-Bhamo Road starting at 5 a.m. According to news reports, the KIA confirmed that, as
of 5 p.m., they had seized ten junta outposts.130 Starting from the morning of March 7 and March 8,
Laiza was bombarded with artillery shelling and airstrikes as the military junta responded to the KIA
offensive with indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas.131 The shelling attack on March
7 killed a 30-year-old mother and her 10-year-old son after a shell hit their house.132
Two residents of Laiza confirmed the attacks. A 45-year-old Laiza resident said:
Last night [March 7], airstrikes hit the mountainous area [of Laiza]. But this morning, the junta
has been shelling my neighborhood nonstop. I am scared to step out of the house. Some of
the shells also dropped on the Chinese side. The junta’s bombs are so powerful that they’re
reverberating across Laiza. The recent airstrike an hour ago broke my windows and damaged
my ceiling. When one bomb dropped, the effect of it forced my doors open and rattled the
windows. My children are scared right now. We are hiding inside the house, but every time we
hear the jet sounds, the kids run to me and tell me their hearts won’t stop beating so fast.133
125 Fortify Rights interview with B.H., Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, Myanmar, November 5, 2023.
126 “Beijing Confirms Chinese Casualties in Myanmar Border Battle,” The Irrawaddy, November 7, 2023, https://www.
irrawaddy.com/news/burma/beijing-confirms-chinese-casualties-in-myanmar-border-battle.html.
127 Ibid.
128 Videos on file with Fortify Rights, October and November 2023.
129 Fortify Rights, “The Myanmar Junta Conducted Air Strikes in Laiza, Kachin State,” November 3, 2023, https://www.
fortifyrights.org/our_films/mya-inv-vdo-2023-11-09/.
130 “ဖွွန်းး�ပရန််ဘွွမ့််� စစ််ကော�ာင််စီတပ်
ီ
်စခန်းး�အပါါအဝင်် ရှေ့့� �တန်းး�စခန်းး�ပေါ�ါင်းး� ၁၀ ခုု KIA တိုုက်
� ခိုု
် က်
� သိိမ်းး
်
�ပိုု�က်် [KIA Captures Ten SAC-Controlled
Frontline Outposts, Including Hpum Pra Bum Outpost],” Kachin News Group, March 7, 2024, https://burmese.
kachinnews.com/2024/03/07/ld3-2/.
131 “လိုု�င်ဇာ
် ာမှာာ� စစ််တပ််ကလေ�ကြော��ာင်းး�နဲ့့�ဗုံးး��ကျဲဲ�၊ တရုုတ််ဘက်ခြ�မ်းး
် �လည်းး� ကျျရော�ာက််ပေါ�ါက််ကွဲဲ� [Junta Airstrike in Laiza Causes Explosion Across
Chinese Border],” Kachin News Group, March 8, 2024, https://burmese.kachinnews.com/2024/03/08/sac-airstrike-inlaiza/.
132 စစ််ကော�ာင််စီတပ်
ီ
်ပစ်ခတ်
်
သ
် ည့််� လက််နက််ကြီး�း�ကြော��ာင့််� လိုု�င်ဇာ
် ာတွွင်် ဒေေသခံံနှစ်
ှ ဦး
် းသေ�ပြီး�း� နှှစ်ဦး
် းထက််မနည်းး�ဒဏ််ရာာရ [Junta Artillery Strike Kills
Two Locals, Injures at Least Two Others in Laiza],” The 74 Media, March 7, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/share/
p/1CAVcbzLDc/.
133 Fortify Rights communication with Z.H., Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, Myanmar, March 8, 2024.