Chiang Mai, Thailand — Three months after she was forced to flee her village in Kayah State to avoid an attack by the Myanmar military, Say Myar decided to return to fetch a stash of rice she had left behind.
Her husband had fallen ill and the family ran out of food in the IDP camp where they were seeking shelter.
“A week earlier, two men went back to get something to eat and nothing happened,” she told CNN Breaking News.
As she approached her abandoned house, Say Myar remembered hearing a loud bang for the first time. She then became aware of the extent of her injuries — her right leg was blown off at the knee.
Her travel companions wrapped up the wound and took her to a makeshift health center, where they managed to save Say Myar’s life.
“I’ve been a farmer all my life, but it’s hard to work now. I’m sorry that I’ve become a burden to my husband,” she said.
Say Myar, in her thirties, is just one of dozens of civilians killed and wounded by land mines planted by the Myanmar military.
In the state of Kayah alone, around 450 km (280 miles) northeast of the commercial capital of Yangon, there were at least 20 civilian victims of landmines between June 2021 and July 2022, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group.
In one incident, the military was accused of planting land mines around a church before setting it on fire. A 16-year-old boy lost his foot as he approached the church to document the destruction.
“The depraved use of land mines by the military in homes and villages will continue to have devastating effects on the civilian population in Kayah State in the coming years,” Rawya Rageh, senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International, said in a July report.
“We know from bitter experience that civilian deaths and injuries will increase over time, and widespread contamination is already preventing people from returning to their homes and farmland.”
According to Amnesty, the Myanmar military typically makes M-14 landmines, which can blow a victim’s foot off a victim’s ankle, and the more powerful MM-2 mines, which can knock off a person’s leg at the knee.
“The junta is heartless”
The increased use of land mines by the military in the past year is due to widespread opposition in the country to the military takeover in 2021, which removed the elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and plunged the country into an increasingly severe political crisis.
Kayah State has developed into a stronghold of pro-democratic armed resistance and has been subjected to far-reaching military reprisals against civilians as a result.
“The junta is heartless. They lay landmines wherever they go, and they don’t remove them when they go. They don’t care that villagers step on them,” said Say Myar, adding that she believes the military is specifically targeting civilians.
Anthony Davis, security analyst at leading defense and open-source news group Janes, said the Myanmar military typically uses “factory-produced anti-personnel mines,” which it uses in increasing numbers to protect strategic sites such as military bases and police stations.
Anti-personnel mines, which are activated when a victim exerts pressure, are prohibited under the international treaty banning mines as they are unable to differentiate between civilian and military targets. Myanmar is not a signatory to this treaty.
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local media is full of reports about resistance groups — commonly known as the People’s Defense Forces — that are also using “land mines” against the Myanmar military, although these are usually improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rather than factory-made mines.
“PDF The reliance on generally primitive explosive devices — which were mostly placed above ground — dates back to mid-2021 and reflects both the lack of small arms and the focus on banning military movement on the road,” Davis said.
The explosives used by resistance groups are often remotely detonated rather than activated by victims.
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, said remote-controlled bombs are not generally prohibited under international humanitarian law, as are mines activated by victims. However, such laws require armed groups to “differentiate between civilians and combatants” when using combatant explosives.
He said that land mines activated by victims “cannot differentiate between a combatant and a civilian,” which is why their use violates the basic principles of international humanitarian law.
“Similarly, a combat force that uses a bomb set off by the command and destroys a civilian freight car, a civilian ambulance, or a civilian vehicle has violated this IHL ban,” he said.
Moser-Puangsuwan added, however, that resistance groups have also occasionally used land mines activated by victims, both in the form of homemade explosives and in the form of factory-made anti-personnel mines captured by the Myanmar military.
“The People’s Defense Forces [PDF] have produced a wide variety of improvised weapons, including remote-controlled roadside bombs, indirect firearms (rockets, mortars), improvised bomb-carrying drones, and improvised anti-personnel landmines. As reported, these were used to cause military casualties. However, they have sometimes also caused civilian casualties,” he said.
Davis, the security specialist, said the sad reality is that civilian casualties are almost likely in Myanmar, where the anti-military resistance remains strongly supported.
“There is a war going on. Civilian casualties are seen as “collateral damage” by both sides,” he said.
A battalion commander from the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), a resistance group against the coup that operates in Kayah State, confirmed that his armed group mainly uses “homemade” land mines.
“We always warn villagers not to travel through certain paths or areas when we use land mines. So far, there has been no case where villagers have been injured by a PDF landmine,” he said.
The commander did not answer the question whether KNDF fighters had ever used landmines activated by victims or only used remotely detonated mines.
Moser-Puangsuwan said there is a “widespread belief” in Myanmar that “an indiscriminate weapon can be used in a discriminatory manner,” which he described as a “fantasy war.”
He said what makes landmines so harmful is that they can “terrorize” entire communities and continue to cost lives long after a conflict has ended.
“Landmines leave behind a deadly legacy for decades and have the unique ability to claim victims of war long after peace has been reached,” he said.