Heavy landmine contamination in eastern Myanmar: report
- By Shoon Naing | Wednesday, 04 January 2017
Myanmar continues to produce, stockpile and use landmines, with more new casualties reported every year, according to newly published data from the Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor. Both state and non-state armed groups employ landmines, with the eastern edge of the country particularly affected.
Kayin State and Bago Region are among the most heavily landmine contaminated areas of the country with high numbers of victims recorded, the report released at the end of December found.
According to the monitor, 159 landmine casualties were reported in 2015. The majority of victims whose age was known were children. But since there is no national, systematic data collection mechanism on landmine incidents, the actual number of victims was expected to be much higher than the reported totals.
Reflecting data collected between January 2007 and September 2015, the monitor’s report stated that some 60 townships (of a total of 325) in 10 states and regions are believed to suffer some degree of mine contamination, primarily from antipersonnel mines. The highest concentrations of suspected hazardous areas were identified in Kayin State, where all seven townships are affected, and Bago Region, where four townships are affected.
“Mined areas are located in areas of Myanmar adjacent to borders with Bangladesh, China and Thailand, but are a particular threat in northern and eastern parts of the country,” says the report.
According to an explosive remnants of war (ERW) report conducted by the Danish Demining Group in 2015, in Kachin State, where fighting resumed in 2011, many of the casualties inflicted by landmines were incurred recently. Around 90 percent of the state’s landmine incidents occurred over the past four years, and 60pc over the past two years.
And the Tatmadaw has confirmed that more mines continue to be laid. In September, deputy defence minister Major General Myint Nwe told parliament that the Tatmadaw still produces and plants landmines, but added that the activity was “systematically” limited.
Yet action taken to assist victims and conduct clearance has been stymied by heavy understaffing and minimal support. In 2013, the government agreed to establish the Myanmar Mine Action Center, but then decided on the precondition that all groups must sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement before survey and clearance work could begin, the monitor report said.
As The Myanmar Times reported in 2015, despite the in-country presence of top-demining organisations, the groups have been able to clear zero landminesfrom Myanmar due to a lack of trust on the part of the armed actors.
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher with the Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor Myanmar, has been conducting research on Myanmar’s landmines for the past 18 years.
“When I started doing this work 18 years ago, nobody was talking about it [landmines]. The government denied that landmines were a problem,” he said at a press conference on December 27.
While 162 countries, or over 80pc of the world’s government have ratified the international Mine Ban Treaty as of December 2016, and 119 have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Myanmar has yet to join either pact. It’s also the only state to have laid mines each year since the 1997 agreement.
“Myanmar has expressed support for the Mine Ban Treaty, but has not taken steps to accede to it,” said the monitor’s report.
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