Shanni-Kachin War in Myanmar (Burma)

                    (Staff article from the FRONTIER MYANMAR on 20 February 2023.)

Shanni and Kachin armed groups at loggerheads: The Shanni Nationalities Army has been accused of aiding the Myanmar military since the coup, while its supporters say the group is defending against persecution by the Kachin Independence Army.

23-year-old Kyaw Zin Win lay on his back, hands tied and eyes blindfolded, as slick warm blood spread from a slash in his throat.  “Hey! Make sure you finish it. Are they all dead?” shouted a man from high above, where Kyaw Zin Win had been struck in the head and thrown from a ledge before having his throat slashed.

Still shocked to find himself alive, it was only after the soldiers left that Zaw Naing discovered he wasn’t the only survivor. “The first five people were killed, but the remaining three of us escaped with our throats cut,” he told Frontier. He alleged that the attackers were members of the Shanni Nationalities Army, an ethnic armed group that has been accused of collaborating with the Myanmar military since the 2021 coup.

Landmine Casualties Soar in Myanmar (Burma)

                   (AP article from the WASHINGTON POST on 19 February 2023.)

BANGKOK — The 3-year-old boy had taken only two steps from his mother’s lap when a deafening explosion rang out. The blast caught the woman in the face, blurring her vision. She forced her eyes open and searched for her son around the jetty where they’d been waiting for a ferry, near their small village in south-central Myanmar.

Through the smoke, she spotted him. His body lay on the ground, his feet and legs mangled with flesh peeled away, shattered bones exposed. “He was crying and telling me that it hurt so much,” she said. “He didn’t know what just happened.”

But she did. The boy had detonated a landmine, an explosive device designed to mutilate or destroy whatever comes into its path. Landmines have been banned for decades by most countries, since the U.N. Mine Ban Treaty was adopted in 1997. But in Myanmar, which isn’t party to the treaty, the use of mines has soared since the military seized power from the democratically elected government in February 2021 and armed resistance has skyrocketed.