Myanmar’s security forces planted internationally banned antipersonnel landmines along its border with Bangladesh which have so far severely injured at least three civilians, including two children, and reportedly killed one man in the past week, Amnesty International confirmed on Saturday.
‘This is another low in what is already a horrific situation in Rakhine State. The Myanmar military’s callous use of inherently indiscriminate and deadly weapons at highly trafficked paths around the border is putting the lives of ordinary people at enormous risk,’ AI’s crisis response director Tirana
Hassan, who is currently near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, said, according to an AI news release.
The AI said it documented a report on use of landmines based on interviews with eyewitnesses and analysis by its own weapons experts.
The United Nations agencies estimated 2,90,000 people fled a major military crackdown since August 25 in Rakhine State.
Some of the mines were found near Taung Pyo Let Wal (also known as Tumbro) in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on the edge of the border with Bangladesh.
Many Rakhine victims, widely known as Rohingya, have fled the area to makeshift shelters inside Bangladesh, but made frequent trips back across the border to bring supplies or to help others to cross.
In one incident, on September 3, a woman in her 50s crossed the border from Bangladesh into Taung Pyo Let Wal and stepped on a landmine on the way back. She is being treated in a Bangladeshi hospital after her leg was blown off from the knee.
One of her relatives, Kalma, 20, told Amnesty International that her mother-in-law went to fetch water to take a shower. A few minutes later she heard a big explosion and also heard someone had stepped on a mine. It was only later she realised it was her mother-in-law.
Amnesty International verified the authenticity of graphic mobile phone images showing the woman’s shredded legs immediately after the blast.
Medical experts concluded from the nature of the injury that it was caused by an explosive device that was powerful, directed upwards and located on the ground, all of which is consistent with a landmine.
Several eyewitnesses said they had seen Myanmar security forces, including military personnel and Border Guard Police, were planting mines close to the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
Other villagers showed photos of at least one other landmine close to the same location, which Amnesty International has also verified to be genuine.
Four other suspected mine blasts also took place last week by a busy crossroad near another village further inside Myanmar in the border area. They seriously injured two boys aged between 10 and 13 and reportedly killed one man, according to witnesses and local people.
One Rohingya man, who was in hiding near the crossroads, said he and others had had found at least six other mines planted in the same area. He and other men had put their own lives at risk to dig up two of the mines to protect other villagers.
At least one of the mines used appears to be the PMN-1 antipersonnel landmine, which is designed to ‘maim and does so indiscriminately’, based on analysis of images by Amnesty International weapons experts.
In a report in June this year, Amnesty International documented how both the Myanmar Army and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and Shan State planted antipersonnel landmines or improvised explosive devices that killed and maimed people, including children.
Australia, according to the AI report, was providing training to the Myanmar Army, while Russia and Israel were among countries supplying it with weapons. While the EU maintains an arms embargo on Myanmar, there have been recent moves by some member states to provide other forms of support including training.
The USA is also exploring expanding military co-operation with the Myanmar army through trainings and workshops, the AI said.
Tirana Hassan said the governments, around the world, who ‘continue to train or (to provide) sell arms to Myanmar’s military are propping up a force that is carrying out a vicious campaign of violence against Rohingya that amounts to crimes against humanity’.
‘This must stop and any other states who are thinking about similar engagement should change course immediately,’ she said.
Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s spokesperson dismissed last week media reports that the army was planting landmines.
Bangladesh government launched a formal complaint with Myanmar for planting landmines along the shared border.
All the evidence suggests that Myanmar security forces ‘are planting landmines that are not only unlawful, but that are already maiming ordinary people,’ Tirana Hassan said.
The AI described the Myanmar security forces operations as ethnic cleansing, with the Rohingya targeted for their ethnicity and religion. In legal terms, ‘these are crimes against humanity that include murder and deportation or forcible transfer of population’, it said.
The AI demanded that the Myanmar authorities immediately end ‘this abhorrent practice’ against people who were already fleeing persecution.
Source: New Age
