Myanmar is not a signatory to the Ottawa Convention, although its land is littered with landmines, the result of decades of conflict between the military and insurgents.
The mines and explosive remnants of war killed or injured at least 5,757 people last year, of whom 84% were civilians, in 53 countries and two territories.
The account, increased by 20% within one year (at least 4,710 victims in 2022), it is broken down into 1,983 dead and 3,663 injured, the text explains, while the fate of another 111 victims remains “unknown”.
OR Myanmar became the country where landmines killed or injured the largest number of people the 2023against the background of the dramatic increase in casualties at the international level, according to the annual report of the Mines and Cluster Munitions Observatory released today.
The text speaks of 1,003 victims in Myanmar, more than Syria (933), which had been in first place for the previous three years, since Afghanistan (651), from Ukraine (580) and the Yemen (499).
Myanmar, formerly Burma, has not signed it Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition and Destruction of Anti-Personnel Mines, to which 164 countries and territories are members.
The territory of Myanmar is strewn with explosive devicesthe result of decades of conflict between the military and insurgents from various ethnic groups. The intensity of conflicts varies by season.
Violence escalated further after the February 2021 coup, which saw the creation of dozens of new resistance organizations to the military junta.
The report says there has been a “large increase” in the military’s use of anti-personnel mines, especially around mobile phone signal towers and pipelines, infrastructure targeted by regime opponents.
The Narcotics Observatory also reports that it has evidence that junta forces use civilians as ‘guides’forcing them to advance in areas where they know there are mines, in defiance of international humanitarian law.
Opponents of the military regime also used landmines “every month from January 2002 to September 2024 in almost all parts of the country,” according to the report, which said investigators reviewed photographic footage.
Rebel organizations have confirmed to AFP that they are using mines against the army.
The Mine Observatory is the research arm of the International Campaign to Ban Mines (ICBL), an NGO network.
Anti-personnel mines continue to kill and maim people, very often civilians, for years if not decades after armed conflicts end. Buried or hidden in the ground, they explode when approached or touched by anyone
Source :Skai
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