One Year On: Continuing abuses in Toungoo District

Top of report | Table of Contents | Notes on the text | Terms and Abbreviations | Introduction | Military expansionism | Forced relocation | Movement restrictions and food security | Internal displacement | Landmines | Conclusion

Landmines

A KNLA soldier removing a landmine from a path near Than Daung Gyi in Than Daung township. This mine is a copy of the US-made M-14 antipersonnel blast mine. KHRG has not yet been able to ascertain where these mines are manufactured or where the SPDC is acquiring them from. Mines of this sort have been planted in their thousands across Toungoo District. [Photo: KHRG]

The SPDC and the KNLA both persist in their mine laying activities in Toungoo District. The difference between these two groups lies in the scale and manner of deployment of the landmines. The KNLA deploys landmines in the path of advancing SPDC columns, and attempts to notify the villagers of where these mines are - though these efforts often prove inadequate. The SPDC deploys many of its mines in and adjacent to civilian villages, in villagers' fields and plantations, on paths that villagers are known to use, and along the banks of rivers where villagers often go to fish and collect water. Villagers are almost never informed of where the SPDC Army soldiers have laid their mines. Many villagers are thus wounded, maimed, or killed by antipersonnel landmines every year as they tend their livelihoods and when performing forced labour for the military. The SPDC claims that these mines are deployed against the armed resistance of the KNLA, but the fact remains that when planted in close proximity to villages and in areas known to be frequented by villagers, civilians are far more commonly the victims of the mines. For example, on September 5th 2006, a 20-year-old villager from Saw Moo Der lost her leg after stepping on a landmine as she was harvesting her paddy. There was no medical treatment immediately available to her until the following day when she was carried to a KNLA clinic. The mine had allegedly been planted there by soldiers from IB #2.

In mid-May 2006, the Free Burma Rangers (FBR) reported that SPDC Army troops were in the process of deploying 2,000 landmines across the district to prevent civilian movement between the hills and the plains. [19] According to a KHRG field researcher, seven truckloads of antipersonnel landmines were sent into Toungoo District along with the regular rice deliveries from Toungoo town in early 2006. While not confirmed, it is possible that these trucks carried the 2,000 mines that FBR was referring to.

"In the beginning of 2006 the SPDC soldiers delivered their rations along with seven trucks full of landmines. The KNU says that every SPDC Army soldier is carrying landmines and they have planted landmines everywhere they go."

- a KHRG field researcher (Aug 2006)

An elderly woman from Hsaw Wah Der village in Tantabin township fleeing into the forest along with the rest of her village in May 2006. In recent months, soldiers from LIB #14 had been to her village killing villagers and stealing their belongings. Just days before this photo was taken, a column of soldiers from LIB #1 encountered 20-year-old Hsaw Wah Der villager, Saw Bu Ler Htaw and shot him on sight as he was walking along the path.[Photo: KHRG]

After villagers have fled into the forest ahead of an advancing SPDC Army column, an increasingly common tactic being employed by the soldiers is to plant landmines under or beside things that they know villagers will return for. In Hee Daw Khaw village in November 2005, the soldiers burned most of the houses but left the church alone - then planted a landmine in front of the church steps. [20] Once they are certain that the soldiers have left, the villagers generally return to the village either to resettle there or to salvage whatever has not been destroyed by the soldiers before going back to the forest, and in collecting their belongings they step on the landmines. Even in such cases, the SPDC still tries to claim that the landmines were deployed as part of their 'counter-insurgency' operations, or simply denies that they had planted the landmines at all and claim that the KNLA had planted the mines.

"Sometimes the villagers would go back to the village to collect the belongings that they left behind. But mostly the villagers couldn't go back because SPDC planted landmines in the village and they were afraid that they would step on them. ... If the villagers left something behind, they [SPDC Army soldiers] would plant a landmine under it or next to it. In our village, people couldn't travel because there were landmines around. Some of the landmines were laid by the SPDC and some were planted by the KNU, but most of them were planted by the SPDC. Some of our villagers stepped on these landmines."

- Saw P--- (M, 47). Refugee, P--- village, Than Daung township (April 2006)

"The SPDC didn't come to fight with their enemies; they came to torture the villagers. In February 2006 they [LID #66] came and built their Army camp close to our village. They came to our village and captured the villagers [for forced labour]. Later, they attacked our village suddenly and unexpectedly. All of the villagers fled in every direction. All of my belongings and animals were left behind. My second son, Saw Mah Ghay Htoo, was also left behind. I wanted to go back to the village and look for him, but the SPDC were destroying the village; burning our houses and the villagers' plantation gardens. Until today we don't know where he is and we haven't heard anything about him. Every villager fled in every direction so we didn't even meet any of the other villagers. I wanted to go and search for him, but we were afraid of the SPDC and listened to what they were going to do. While we were waiting, one of the villagers' buffaloes stepped on a landmine. Two or three days later, one of the villagers, Saw Htoo Kler, also stepped on an SPDC landmine. We then knew that the SPDC had planted landmines in our village, outside the village and around the village which caused us to be even more afraid of going back. They planted their landmines in the village and in the villagers' fields and farms. We couldn't go back to look for my son or to fetch our food because the landmines were all around. In the end we realised that we couldn't do anything more, so we had to leave him without knowing what happened to him."

- Saw G--- (Male, 30). Refugee, S--- village, Than Daung township (April 2006)

To help the villagers, KNLA soldiers have been clearing landmines from among the hills where they will affect the lives of the villagers. A KHRG field researcher has asserted that to this end, the KNLA has already located and removed over 50 landmines, including five that were removed from Wah Mi Per Koh on October 10th 2006 and another ten from Hsaw Wah Der village on October 11th. Seldom equipped with more than sticks and prods, a number of KNLA soldiers have been wounded in this process. Some have lost limbs and some have been blinded during mine clearing operations. Despite the mine clearance efforts of the KNLA, Toungoo District still suffers heavily from landmine contamination. The region remains littered with literally thousands of mines. Many villagers no longer dare to return to their villages or fields for fear of stepping on one. The result of this is that these villagers, in fearing to return to their fields and plantations, are not able to harvest their crops, which only further exacerbates their already serious food shortages.

"The villagers' lives depend on their [ability to cultivate their] plantations. When the SPDC soldiers planted landmines and destroyed their plantations, the villagers couldn't do anything [they lost their livelihoods]."

- a KHRG field researcher (Aug 2006)

The SPDC does not typically provide any medical or financial assistance to the victims of their landmines. The characteristic response of the SPDC is to deny all responsibility and instead lay blame on the KNLA for planting the mines. Landmine victims must largely rely on help from other villagers as well as any that they can get from KNLA medics or from mobile Karen relief organizations.

Top of report | Table of Contents | Notes on the text | Terms and Abbreviations | Introduction | Military expansionism | Forced relocation | Movement restrictions and food security | Internal displacement | Landmines | Conclusion

Footnotes

[19] Free Burma Rangers. Burma Army Launches New Attacks in Western and Northern Karen States, 15/5/06. Received by email. Available on the FBR website at http://www.freeburmarangers.org.

[20] See Karen Human Rights Group. Recent Attacks on Villages in Southeastern Toungoo District Send Thousands Fleeing into the Forests and to Thailand (KHRG #2006-B3, 16/3/06) and KHRG Photo Gallery 2005, Section 1 (KHRG #2006-P1, 6/4/06).