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Myanmar tops grim world ranking of landmine victims

November 22, 2024/in News

With violence surging, Myanmar has more casualties than Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. BANGKOK – Myanmar has for the first time recorded the most casualties in the world from antipersonnel landmines, with 1,003 victims in 2023, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, or ICBL, said in its annual report launched in Bangkok on Wednesday. Myanmar has […]

Children make up nearly 40% of Myanmar’s 3.4 million displaced: UN

November 22, 2024/in News

The junta and related groups have killed more than 670 children since the 2021 military coup. Children make up nearly 40% of the more than 3.4 million people displaced in Myanmar due to the civil war, UNICEF said Thursday. The findings from United Nations Children’s Fund came as an organization that monitors conflict in Myanmar […]

Myanmar tops grim world ranking of landmine victims

November 22, 2024/in News

Children make up nearly 40% of Myanmar’s 3.4 million displaced: UN

November 22, 2024/in News

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Myanmar tops grim world ranking of landmine victims

November 22, 2024/in News

With violence surging, Myanmar has more casualties than Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

BANGKOK – Myanmar has for the first time recorded the most casualties in the world from antipersonnel landmines, with 1,003 victims in 2023, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, or ICBL, said in its annual report launched in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Myanmar has been embroiled in conflict since the military ousted an elected government in an early 2021 coup, with pro-democracy activists taking up arms and linking up with ethnic minority insurgents to fight to end army rule.

Both sides are using landmines in their battles, the ICBL said, though the anti-junta forces are more likely to deploy crudely made booby traps, with villagers the most likely victims.

“Myanmar’s armed forces have repeatedly used antipersonnel mines since seizing power in a coup,” said the Geneva-based group, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its campaign to ban the weapons, in its report.

“This use represents a significant increase on use in previous years, including use around infrastructure such as mobile phone towers, extractive enterprises, and energy pipelines,” it said.

Myanmar recorded 545 landmine victims the previous year, it said.

At the global level, at least 5,757 casualties, 1,983 people killed and 3,663 injured, from landmines and unexploded ordnance were recorded for 2023 and the numbers are increasing, the group said. Around the world, 58 countries are plagued with landmine contamination.

The second-highest tally of casualties over the past year was in Syria, with 933, down from 2,729 the previous year when it had the world’s worst tally of landmine casualties.

Afghanistan had the third most this year with 651, but a sharp drop from the 1,824 casualties it reported in 2019 when its toll was the world’s worst. War-torn Ukraine was fourth this year with 580 casualties.

Reflecting the surge in fighting in Myanmar since the military seized power, the ICBL said most of the casualties reported there during 2023 and 2024 appeared to be from mines planted within the past two years.

“The Myanmar armed forces have previously admitted … that they use antipersonnel mines in areas where they are under attack,” the group said.

“Mine casualties are often recorded on the outskirts of Myanmar army camps, which is another indicator of new use.”

‘Extensive contamination’

The group said it had reports of the Myanmar army threatening that farmers must pay for antipersonnel mines detonated by their livestock. It said it had also found evidence of the army “using civilians as ‘guides’ to walk in front of its units in mine-affected areas, effectively to detonate landmines.”

“This is a grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law,” it said.

The group said it also had numerous reports of villagers falling victim to mines planted by anti-junta forces.

“The extent of landmine contamination is not known, but is likely to be extensive given the ongoing use and production by both Myanmar armed Forces and NSAGs,” it said, referring to non-state armed groups.

As of September 2023, suspected contamination by landmines and unexploded ordnance was reported in 168 of Myanmar’s townships, or 51% of all townships, it said.

The ICBL launched its report days ahead of the Fifth Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, as the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty is formally known. Parties meet in Cambodia on Nov. 25.

The group called for an immediate halt to the use of the weapons and for all countries to sign up to the treaty that it championed.

“This flagship report records a shocking number of civilians killed or injured by antipersonnel mines, including children,” said Tamar Gabelnick, director of the ICBL.

“Any use of antipersonnel mines by any actor under any circumstances is unacceptable and must be condemned. All countries that have not yet done so should join the Mine Ban Treaty to turn back this tide and end the suffering caused by these vile weapons.”

Edited by Mike Firn

RFA News

Children make up nearly 40% of Myanmar’s 3.4 million displaced: UN

November 22, 2024/in News

The junta and related groups have killed more than 670 children since the 2021 military coup.

Children make up nearly 40% of the more than 3.4 million people displaced in Myanmar due to the civil war, UNICEF said Thursday.

The findings from United Nations Children’s Fund came as an organization that monitors conflict in Myanmar said the ruling junta and affiliated groups have killed more than 670 children since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat, sparking the conflict.

In a statement on Thursday — a day after World Children’s Day — UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said that the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is “reaching a critical inflection point,” with escalating conflict and climate shocks “putting children and families at unprecedented risk.”

He said that approximately 1 million people have been affected by the country’s war, which was sparked amid public opposition to the military takeover, and devastation caused by late September’s Cyclone Yagi — Southeast Asia’s worst storm of the year.

Chaiban said that during a recent trip to Myanmar’s embattled Kachin state, he saw children “cut off from vital services, including healthcare and education, and suffering from the effects of violence and displacement.”

“[I] saw firsthand how vulnerable children and other civilians are in conflict-affected areas and the urgent need to uphold international humanitarian law to protect them from such brutal attacks,” he said.

Chaiban noted that minors account for 32% of the more than 1,000 people injured and killed by landmines and other explosive devices since the start of the conflict.

“The increasing use of deadly weapons in civilian areas, including airstrikes and landmines hitting homes, hospitals, and schools, has severely restricted the already limited safe spaces for children, robbing them of their right to safety and security,” he said, adding that “the situation is dire.”

Chaiban called for all stakeholders in Myanmar to guarantee safe and unhindered aid, especially for children and families in conflict zones, to remove administrative barriers and ensure minimum operating standards and to protect children from grave violations.

“International humanitarian law must be upheld, with a focus on protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure – including schools and hospitals – and ensuring safe passage for those fleeing from violence,” he said.

Additionally, he urged the international community to increase its support for the country’s children through funding and advocacy.

“The cost of inaction is far too high — Myanmar’s children cannot afford to wait,” he said.

Hundreds of children killed

Also on Thursday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma reported that, as of Nov. 20, the junta and its affiliate groups had killed at least 671 children in Myanmar since the coup nearly four years ago.

The group said that the number showed a year-on-year increase in child mortality rates, attributable to the conflict.

In 2021, AAPP said, 101 children under the age of 18 were reported killed, followed by 136 the following year. By 2023, the number had increased to 208 and, by the end of 2024, had reached 226 child fatalities.

In one of the worst incidents since the coup, the junta bombed Konlaw village in Kachin state’s Momauk township on Nov. 15, killing nine displaced people, including seven children, the group said.

Amid an escalating toll of child casualties caused by airstrikes, Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, the shadow National Unity Government’s Minister of Women, Youth, and Children’s Affairs, called for urgent measures to ban the sale of aviation fuel to Myanmar’s military.

“We urgently request the cessation of aircraft fuel sales to the military regime, as it is being used to carry out brutal attacks that result in the killing of children,” she said during remarks delivered at a World Children’s Day event in Myanmar on Wednesday.

Attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun for comment on the situation facing children in Myanmar went unanswered Thursday.

According to the AAPP, junta authorities have killed at least 5,974 civilians since the military coup.

RFA News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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