Malaysia: Impose Regional Aviation Fuel Embargo on Myanmar Junta

Malaysia, as the current Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), should initiate emergency measures within the regional bloc to ban the sale and transfer of aviation fuel to the Myanmar military junta, following the junta’s latest deadly airstrike on a packed school building, Fortify Rights said today. On May 12, at approximately 9:35 a.m., while children were attending school, a Myanmar military junta jet dropped at least two bombs on a school in the village of O Htein Twin, Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region, killing at least 22 children between the ages of seven and 16, as well as two adult teachers. At least 100 others were reportedly wounded in the attack.

“While telling the world that it’s engaged in a so-called ceasefire, the Myanmar military junta is bombing schoolchildren in their classroom in a deliberate act of terror,” said Sai Arkar, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights. “ASEAN member states must abandon their current approach of looking away from the junta’s atrocities and instead take action to end these war crimes.”

Fortify Rights spoke with three eyewitnesses to the aerial attack on the school. Fortify Rights also obtained and analyzed graphic photographs revealing the airstrike’s devastating aftermath.

“May Pan,” 30, a township official working under the National Unity Government (NUG) and one of the first responders following the attack at the school, described the aftermath of the attack to Fortify Rights:

Later in the day, May Pan went to speak to the parents of the children killed in the attack:

“Sayar Mg Mg,” 37, a teacher and eyewitness who was among the first responders, said: “I saw that jet fighter flying away. I also heard the sound of the explosion. … We had to pull out the injured children and the dead bodies. … We held the funerals for all [20 children and two teachers] this evening..”

As of May 14, two additional students from Grade 2 and Grade 3 died from injuries sustained in the attack, bringing the death toll to 24, while others remain in critical condition with limited medical assistance. According to media reports and eyewitness accounts, the victims included students from Grade 2 through 11, along with two teachers. More than 100 others were reportedly injured.

All eyewitnesses confirmed to Fortify Rights that there was no active conflict in the area surrounding the school at the time of the airstrike, or any presence of armed fighters or military positions in the village.

On May 12, during an evening broadcast on Myanmar Radio and Television, the state-run television network controlled by the Myanmar junta, officials dismissed reports of the Tabayin Township school bombing as “fake news.” However, consistent eyewitness testimonies and verified photographic evidence obtained by Fortify Rights directly contradict this denial.

In response to the attack, the Ministry of Education under the National Unity Government of Myanmar issued a statement the same day, calling on the international community to “impose effective sanctions against the military junta and support the creation of safe educational environments where children can learn without fear.”

Fortify Rights documented a separate junta airstrike on another village in Tabayin Township on April 23, which killed five people, including a 13-year-old child.

Debris and a cane ball lie among the wreckage of a classroom hit by a junta airstrike in Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region. ©The Records Department of Battalion No. 12, Shwebo District, 2025

International humanitarian law, or the law of war, applies to much of Myanmar, where the situation constitutes a non-international armed conflict. Under the Geneva Conventions—specifically Common Article 3—all parties are required to treat civilians humanely and to always distinguish during military operations between legitimate military targets and protected civilians or civilian objects, such as homes and schools not being used for military purposes. Both direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate strikes that fail to distinguish between civilian and military targets are expressly prohibited under international law.

The Myanmar junta’s bombing of a school in Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region, which killed 22 children and two teachers, appears to serve no legitimate military aim and may amount to a war crime, said Fortify Rights. Similar strikes on schools and religious buildings—including monasteries, churches, and mosques sheltering civilians—occurred during the junta’s self-declared ceasefire, showing an escalation in attacks on civilian targets during this period.

Despite sanctions by governments, including the United States, targeting the sale and transfer of aviation fuel to the Myanmar junta, the military regime continues to purchase aviation fuel and military supplies on the international market and use them to launch deadly attacks on civilians.

As ASEAN leaders prepare to meet for their annual summit later this month, Malaysia, which holds the rotating chair of the regional bloc, should propose emergency measures to protect Myanmar’s civilian population. Such emergency measures should include regional coordination to deprive the Myanmar military junta of aviation fuel, weapons, and munitions, and refuse to recognize the junta, which tried to seize power in a military coup, as the legitimate government of Myanmar.

“ASEAN is keen to find an ASEAN-led solution to the crisis in Myanmar, yet it has consistently turned a blind eye to the junta’s atrocity crimes,” said Sai Arkar. “There is nothing ‘Asian’ about inaction by ASEAN while the Myanmar junta continues slaughtering its own people, and strongly worded statements were never going to stop the junta. ASEAN must now, finally, take action.”

The remains of a school building in O Htein Twin Village, Tabayin Township, where 22 children and two teachers were killed. ©The Records Department of Battalion No. 12, Shwebo District, 2025

Read the press release in Myanmar