landmines

The Karen refugees in Thailand could be facing a new situation before we even know of it! Over the past years foreign donors and NGOs have chosen to abandon the border area and direct their support and aid through Rangoon via government-controlled agencies. The thinking is that when they have chosen to “engage” with President Thein Sein´s government they agree…

The Karen Nation Union (KNU)’s general secretary, Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win, said that mine clearance in KNU controlled areas would be dependent on ceasefire conditions and if a level of trust with the government could be reached. Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win said that taking into account the current status of the peace talks now, is not the time…

Despite the ceasefire between the government and Karen armed groups landmines are still a massive risk to people in Karen state. A Karen woman, Naw Ma Pain, 41-, who lives in Htee Kyar Mae village in Waw Lay area, Myawaddy Township, Karen State, stepped on the landmine on early May that resulted in the amputation of her leg. Naw Ma…

Two people were injured in two separate landmine incidents, in February and June 2013 in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District, leading to fears that land mine areas have recently been laid. On February 2nd 2013, a 22-year-old man was walking home after collecting firewood in Maw Lay Forest when he stepped on a landmine, sustaining injuries to his leg. On June…

Karen News photojournalist Saw Mort spent time with landmine casualty Saw LahKyi, a Karen National Liberation Army soldier, who lost both legs when he stepped on a mine in 2009. The Royal Thai Army estimates that the Thai Burma border is the region’s most heavily landmined and according to the 2012 Landmine Monitor Report, Karen State has the most casualties…

The new Burmese government needs to design and implement a national program to eliminate the landmine risk if it is serious about genuine political reconciliation with the ethnic minorities in Burma. Despite democratic reforms and moves to sign ceasefires with non-state armed groups, Burma is still not a signatory to the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning the use of land mines,…

Old and unexploded landmines remain an everyday threat to the lives of civilians and restrict their ability to travel safely. In a 2011 report by the humanitarian organisation Geneva Call, it was estimated that 5.2 million people live in areas contaminated by landmines in Burma. Landmines are concentrated in the country’s east – where many of Burma’s major ethnic people…

An independent human rights organization, Karen Human Rights Group have reported that thousands of unexploded landmines are a daily threat to the lives of the civilian population and their livestock in Karen State. KHRG said that in Nabu Township, Pa-an District area that a 21-year-old man was killed and another 40-year-old male lost a leg in different landmine incidents between…

Burma’s deadly legacy due to decades of civil conflict undercuts the impoverished country’s reform process. In Eastern Burma, villagers are increasingly unwilling to leave their homes from fear of walking on a landmine, or of being coerced into becoming human minesweepers for the Burma Army. A humanitarian NGO, the Karen Human Rights Group, has released a report documenting the challenges…

The ongoing use of landmines by the Burma Army and armed groups in Eastern Burma continues to threaten civilians according to a report released this week by the Karen Human Rights Group. The KHRG report – ‘Uncertain Ground’ – documents the period between January 2011 and May 2012, and includes evidence taken from a total of 119 testimonies from local…