(AP article from the WASHINGTON POST on 19 February 2023.)
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.
Landmines are
planted by all sides of the conflict in Myanmar, and they’re responsible for
surging civilian casualties, including an alarming number of children as
victims, according to an AP analysis based on data and reports from nonprofit
and humanitarian organizations, interviews with civilian victims, families,
local aid workers, military defectors and monitoring groups.
In 2022, U.N.
figures show, civilian casualties from landmine and unexploded ordnance spiked
by nearly 40%. Experts say this and other official tallies are vastly
undercounted, largely due to difficulties monitoring and reporting during the
conflict. Despite incomplete numbers, experts agree the increase in Myanmar is
the largest ever recorded.
Virtually no
area is immune to the threat. Over the past two years, mine contamination has
spread to every state and region except for the capital city, Naypyitaw,
according to Landmine Monitor, a group that tracks global landmine use.
The military also uses civilians as human shields, a
practice widespread in the country for decades but raising alarms with
increasing mine incidents. AP’s analysis found the military, known as the
Tatmadaw, forced people to walk ahead of troops to detonate potential landmines
in their path, protecting their own troops.
The Myanmar
military, which has acknowledged mine use in the past, didn’t respond to a list
of questions AP sent to their official spokesperson’s email. When the fighting
moves on, landmines don’t. Mines left behind can indiscriminately maim or kill
those who happen upon them, years later.
It raises the
specter of casualties for years to come. In countries including Egypt and
Cambodia, people continue to die from millions of mines left behind long after
conflicts has ended. “Leaving an activated mine like this is the same as
releasing a monster,” said a 26-year-old military defector who worked as a
combat engineer platoon commander in Myanmar.
Like most who
were interviewed by AP, the defector spoke on condition of anonymity to protect
himself and his family from military retaliation.
Landmines and
unexploded ordnance have been a persistent issue in Myanmar for more than four
decades. The problem has grown exponentially since the military takeover, with
heavier use of landmines in more parts of the country, said Kim Warren, a U.N.
landmine specialist.
In 2022, 390
people were victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Myanmar, more than
a 37% increase from 2021, according to figures compiled by UNICEF. Overall, 102
people were killed and 288 were wounded, with children making up some 34% of
the victims, compared with 26% in 2021.
Still, Warren
said, incidents are underreported. Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Landmine Monitor’s
Myanmar expert, said his group counts only casualties it can confirm with
confidence: “We’ve always been undercounting.”
Experts concede
the total number of casualties may seem small, with Myanmar’s population of
about 56 million, but say the rapid increase is distressing nonetheless.
Experts are particularly concerned about children victims. Many are unaware of
how lethal landmines and unexploded munitions are; some pick them up and play
with them.
Many civilian
victims encounter landmines during daily routines. In March 2021, two teenage
cousins were working on a small family-run plot in Shan state. They’d just left
to dig for sweet potatoes when the father of one of the boys heard a blast. He
rushed to help but was too late. They’d been killed instantly. They’d triggered
a mine.
The father, 47,
tears up when he returns to the fields. “But it’s my family’s business, so I
have to come to the farm to make a living,” said the man, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to protect himself and his relatives.
“A mine is an
indispensable weapon to attack the enemy,” said the member, who spoke by phone
on condition of anonymity over the sensitive information and fear the military
would retaliate against his family.
One man in Myanmar’s western Chin state described
how soldiers took him, his pregnant wife and their 5-year-old daughter captive,
making them and 10 other civilians walk ahead, beating them with rifles if they
refused. “I thought: ‘Today is the day I die,’” said the man, who also spoke on
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. They escaped — no mines detonated
during their march.
Landmine Monitor
documented similar incidents in other states, calling it a “grave violation of
international humanitarian and human rights law.” Myanmar and Russia were the
only states documented to have used mines in 2022, according to Landmine
Monitor.
The group also
confirmed the military has been increasingly mining infrastructure such as
mobile phone towers and power lines to deter attacks. Military-planted mines
also are protecting at least two major Chinese-backed projects — a copper mine
in Sagaing and a pipeline pumping station in northeastern Shan state that is
part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, Moser-Puangsuwan said.
“We are not
aware of the situation you mentioned,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs wrote to the AP in a fax. “The cooperation project between
China and Myanmar is in line with the common interests of both sides and has
brought tangible benefits to the people of Myanmar.”
It made no
reference to any of those who’d been maimed.
