BURMA: Hidden Weapons of War Continue Cruel Maiming

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 25 2004 (IPS) - Refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border reveal more than the tale of villagers fleeing their homes to escape the bullets of the Burmese army. They also offer a glimpse into the pervasive use of landmines as a weapon of war.

Care for landmine victims from Burma, that keep crossing over to Thailand to seek assistance rendered by humanitarian agencies in at least eight refugee camps, includes providing them with artificial limbs.

”The majority of the people we treat are men between 15 years to 55 years,” Shushira Chonhenchob, a manager at the Thai office of Handicap International (HI), told IPS.

Last year, artificial limbs were given to 99 new cases, while in 2002, the HI staff assisted 126 cases. ”The landmine victims we help are those whose wounds have healed and who have been asked to go to a prosthetic workshop,” said Shushira.

Such a reality, however, is only a fragment of a wider, disturbing picture of landmine injuries in Burma – which is in a small league of belligerent nations that continues to pursue mine warfare.

”It (Burma) is the only country in all of South-east Asia where mine warfare is still going on,” Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Southeast Asia coordinator for Nonviolence International, said in an interview.

The other three countries where there is ”compelling evidence” of anti-personnel landmines being used are Georgia, Nepal and Russia, declared a report released this month by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an independent body that has among its ranks global human rights and humanitarian bodies.

That these countries are marching out of step with the current trend against landmine use is reflected in the dramatic drop in the number of countries producing this low- intensity warfare weapon that kills or maims people indiscriminately.

”Of the more than 50 countries known to have produced anti-personnel mines, all but 15 have formally renounced the production,” stated a media release that accompanied the publication of the 1,300 page ‘Landmine Monitor.’

Five years after an international treaty banning the use of landmines came into effect, there has been a marked global shift against this weapon, the report noted.

That is amplified by the action taken by nearly half of the 143 countries that have endorsed the 1997 Treaty to Ban Landmines. They have destroyed their stockpiles, which amounts to ”more than 37 million anti-personnel mines,” Stephen Goose, chief editor of the 2004 report, pointed out.

But the military government of Burma, which has been renamed Myanmar, is not the only perpetrator defying such a humanitarian gesture. ”The rebel groups in Burma also use them,” said Moser-Puangsuwan,

The Burmese military, called the ‘Tatmadaw,’ often place the mines around the camps to protect them from attacks by ethnic rebel groups, he added. ”They also lay them along routes the rebels may take, in forests and even in deserted villages.”

” ‘Tatmadaw’ military units have received orders to use anti-personnel landmines systematically, which has been documented in several of the states and divisions of the country by the Landmine Monitor,” stated a publication by Nonviolence International.

The Nonviolence International report titled ‘ASEAN and the Banning of Anti-personnel Landmines,’ further accused the Burmese regime of committing atrocities by forcing ethnic minority villagers or prisoners to walk in front of government troops in areas ”suspected of mine contamination.”

”Some survivors have reported that certain civilians forced to serve the military were required to manually clear mines without adequate training or tools,” it added. ”In Burma/ Myanmar, nine out of 14 states and divisions of the country contain some mine-affected areas, with particularly heavy concentrations near its eastern border areas.”

The report also revealed that at least 13 of nearly 30 rebel or ethnic militant groups who have been fighting Rangoon’s forces over territorial-control still use landmines. They are most active in the South-east Asian country’s Rakine, Chin, Shan, Kayah and Kayin states.

The Nonviolence International report accused rebel groups of, also, using landmines to protect their ”illicit traffic routes, to prevent encroachment by competitors or to prevent public access to this areas.”

”Rebels in the Karen state use landmines to protect the forests logged for timber and that often end up in Thailand,” Moser-Puangsuwan pointed out.

The tragedy of this landmine crisis in Burma goes beyond the number of people who are ”injured or killed by mines every month,” stated the ICBL on its website.

Most stark is the little assistance that Burmese mine victims received, it revealed. ”Unless a victim can pay for treatment, available care is limited. An average of 12 hours elapses before first medical attention.”

The lack of disability laws in Burma adds to the victims’ woes. ”There is no economic guarantee for landmine victims,” said Moser-Puangsuwan. ”A landmine survivor becomes a source of impoverishment for the family, because they have to spend a lot to care for the victim.”