Naypyidaw: On September 16, 22-year-old Aung Gya Thowai Tanchangya was grazing his cattle near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
"Our cattle sometimes migrate to Myanmar, so we have to go to get them back," he said. The mine exploded when I stepped on it. I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I found that my left leg was missing. I'm still in pain.
Only Russia and Myanmar actively use antipersonnel landmines in 2022, 25 years after ratification of the International Mine Ban Treaty. According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2022, which was published last week, the junta has increased its use of landmines since the coup in February 2021, although Myanmar's military has been employing them since 1999.
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The report examined images of hundreds of landmines that the junta had manufactured and spread across the country.
Between February 2021 and September 2022, landmines and other explosive remnants of war caused 157 civilian deaths and 395 injuries in Myanmar. Children accounted for about a third of the casualties.
Landmines have been planted by the army in fields, houses, church grounds and village roads. To detonate any mines, military units continue to act as "human shields" by marching civilians in front of them.
As fighting spread to Rakhine state in August, the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, discovered a large number of mines that had been set up by the military.
On the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where locals like Tanchangya collect firewood, farm and graze cattle, casualties from landmines are mounting.
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In the days before the recent mine explosions, eyewitnesses claimed to have seen Myanmar soldiers roaming close to border posts.
In armed conflicts in ethnic minority areas, Myanmar's military has long been accused of serious violations of the laws of war, many of which are tantamount to war crimes.
Since the coup, junta officials have withheld life-saving assistance and instructed medical personnel not to treat patients injured by mines.
The prospect of encountering landmines could make repatriation difficult for the 1.4 million refugees scattered across Myanmar.
The monitor report also mentions non-state armed groups using mines.
Antipersonnel mines are banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which also mandates their removal, stockpile destruction, and victim assistance.
The use of landmines by military junta is still illegal even though Myanmar is not a signatory to the treaty as they do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Even long after they are established, they still kill and maim.
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At the 20th meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty beginning this week in Geneva, governments should condemn Myanmar's use of antipersonnel landmines, and efforts to cut off the junta from funding that supports its use of these devastating weapons.