The United Nations on Thursday demanded an investigation after a strike on a Myanmar hospital killed at least 33 people, saying the attack could constitute a war crime.
The strike on Mrauk-U hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state took place late Wednesday.
The ruling junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of the country’s civil war, conflict monitors say, after seizing power in a 2021 coup ending a decade-long experiment with democracy.
“I am appalled and condemn in (the) strongest possible terms the strikes on Rakhine hospital which left dozens of civilians dead and wounded,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on X.
“Such attacks may amount to a war crime. I call for investigations and those responsible to be held to account. The fighting must stop now.”
A spokesman for Turk’s office said it was down to the national authorities to investigate, but “given the prevailing impunity” in Myanmar, there were other means to hold perpetrators of abuses to account, including international courts and universal jurisdiction.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled” by the attack on the hospital, which he said is the area’s primary healthcare centre providing emergency services, obstetrics and surgery.
“At least 33 people have been killed and 20 injured, including health workers, patients and family members. Hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed,” the UN health agency chief wrote on X.
“This is the 67th attack on health verified by WHO Myanmar this year. Every attack on health care is an attack on humanity,” he said.
Myanmar’s military has set new elections starting December 28, pledging the vote will serve as a path to peace and democracy.
International monitors and ousted lawmakers dismiss the poll as a plot to rebrand continuing military rule, while rebels have vowed to block the vote from the vast territories they control.
On Wednesday, Turk raised concerns about the situation in Myanmar in the build-up to the polls.
“Myanmar’s upcoming military-imposed ‘election’ is accompanied by new waves of acute insecurity and violence, continued arrests and detentions of opponents, voter coercion, the use of extensive electronic surveillance tools and systemic discrimination,” he told a press conference in Geneva.
“I fear this process will only further deepen insecurity, fear and polarisation throughout the country.”
