People with disabilities call on regime to stop bombing civilians

By Admin 03 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
3 December 2024, Sittwe

People with disabilities called on Myanmar’s military regime to refrain from targeting civilians in airstrikes on December 3, celebrated annually as International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Across Myanmar, the number of people with disabilities is increasing due to the regime’s airstrikes, along with a growing number of encounters involving explosive remnants of war (ERWs), including landmines.

The regime is also targeting towns and villages where civilians live in Arakan State, both at locations where fighting between the junta and the Arakkha Army (AA) is ongoing and places that are not experiencing active conflict, causing casualties nearly daily.

“I understand that people suffer because of the war. But I cannot accept that the regime targets civilians with airstrikes every time it loses a war,” said Ma Khaing Khaing Mar, a disabled woman from Hnamadah Village in Paletwa Township. “People depend on their hands and feet to make a living. People lose their limbs and cannot work. So I want the regime to stop carrying out airstrikes on the people.”

Ma Khaing Khaing Mar lost one of her legs in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the forest in May of this year, and she still requires medical treatment.

According to the Rakhine State Disabilities Organization, more than 720 civilians were disabled by the junta’s air and artillery strikes, landmines and unexploded ordnance in Myebon, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Pauktaw and Maungdaw townships over the past 11 months. The number is twice as high as the total number of people disabled by the previous fighting in Arakan State, according to the organisation.

Although there are many people with disabilities in Arakan State for various reasons, the relatively recent increase in the number of disabled people is largely due to the regime’s airstrikes, artillery fire, and landmines.

“During this period, airstrikes are happening every day, and people with disabilities are suffering more than ordinary people,” said a disability rights activist in Arakan State. “Therefore, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I would like to appeal to all concerned that people with disabilities are being targeted in various ways, so that they have no chance and are losing everything. I would like to appeal to all those who are affected by the situation, both mentally and physically.”

In the past, social assistance organisations provided psychological and physical treatment as well as financial support for people with disabilities, but currently, those with disabilities do not receive such support.

Many of them are women, children, and heads of households who were disabled during the war, and are facing many difficulties amid livelihood hardships due to lack of jobs and rising prices.