The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) announced that there are still landmines in six townships in Mon State at a press conference held at Taw-Winn-Hnin-Se Hall in Yangon, Burma, on 29th December 2015.
The six Mon townships were Bilin, Kyaikhto, Mawlamyine, Thanbyuzayat, Thahton and Ye townships. They were included in an ICBL list of 50 Townships that still have mines. The list included townships in Karenni State, Kayin State, Kachin State, Bago Region, Rakhine State, Shan State, Tanintharyi Region and Chin State.
Dr. Yesshua Moser-Puangsuwah from ICBL said: “After the battle, all soldiers go back to their camps with their guns but they do not dig out their landmines. So, landmines are left in the forest and mountain areas. Even if there is peace if landmines have been planted there could be problems later. That is why landmines are not just a problem for armies, they cause problems for civilians too.”
Burma has not yet signed the United Nations Mine Ban Treaty (also known as the Ottawa Treaty) and abstained in a UN vote on the banning of landmines.
According to the ICBL when counting the amount of mines still being laid in a country Burma is the third worst country in the world and between 1999 and 2013 in 3,450 people were injured by landmines and 348 were killed in Burma.
U Thant Sin the chairman of the Myanmar Peace Aid Foundation said the most dangerous places for landmines in Burma are Kachin State and Shan State, but the situation is improving in Mon State.
He said: “The situation in Mon State is good, no new landmines have been laid and the only thing we need to do is clear the landmines that were planted in the past, so the situation is very good.”
Following an agreement between the government and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) in 2014 the Norwegian People’s Aid-NPA Mine Action group surveyed villages in Mon State that may suffer problems with landmines.
They wanted to survey 43 villages in Mon State but were only allowed to survey 17 villages.
They could not find any landmines in the villages they surveyed, possibly because they were forbidden from surveying areas where there were landmines.
The NPA only recorded seven landmine accidents in Mon State in the past ten years.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
