In response to the military airstrike this week on a village in Myanmar, which is reported to have killed up to 100 people, including civilians, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday said the bloc “strongly condemns” the attack, adding: "All forms of violence must end immediately, particularly the use of force against civilians."
Myanmar's military deposed elected members of the country's ruling party and took power in a coup d'état on February 1, 2021. President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were among those detained. That March, protests against the coup began to spread across the country and the military's response became increasingly brutal.
As of March 28, 2,559 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in the country as a direct response to the coup and 459 had been killed. By April 12, 2023 though, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group, reports that 3,240 people have been killed while a total of 21,348 have been arrested or sentenced (3,866 have since been released).
