Post-encounter life a daily struggle for landmine victims in Arakan State

By Admin 17 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
17 October 2023, Kyauktaw

Many of those who lost limbs due to landmines or explosive remnants of war (ERWs) as a result of conflict between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Arakan State are struggling to survive.

U Ba Shwe, a resident of Kunohnsu Village in Kyauktaw Township who lost his right leg in a landmine explosion, said his family is currently facing livelihood hardships.

“I can’t work. I rely on my wife and my son’s earnings, but their wages are not enough for my family’s livelihood. We are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

U Ba Shwe lost his right leg when he stepped on a landmine while searching for his cattle near the village in September 2022.

U Kyaw Aye Thein, a local man from Mahnyitaung Village in Rathedaung Township who lost his left leg in a landmine blast in March 2020, said he is struggling to make ends meet.

“I no longer work since I became a disabled person. We are facing livelihood difficulties. I don’t want more people to be like me. I want the concerned officials to clear the landmines and ERWs,” he said.

International humanitarian law states that when armed forces end hostilities, parties to the conflict that laid landmines must clear those landmines or take other measures to ensure that civilians are not harmed.

It has been nearly a year since the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) observed an informal ceasefire in November 2022, but residents in Arakan State continue to face the danger of landmines and ERWs.

The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty has been signed by more than 160 countries, but Myanmar is joined by the United States, China, Russia, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Vietnam and others in abstaining from signing to date.

Since November 26 of last year — when the Myanmar military-AA ceasefire went into effect — six people have been killed and 12 others were injured in landmine explosions in Arakan State, according to a DMG tally.

A separate DMG accounting found that 64 people died and 162 others were injured in explosions of landmines and ERWs in 2022 in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township.