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V.  Landmines

Landmines are a rapidly worsening scourge in several parts of Burma, particularly in Karen State. Research done by Non-Violence International for the Landmine Monitor (part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines) estimated that there were more landmine casualties in Karen State alone in 1999 than in all of Cambodia. Worse still, Thai hospitals along the Burma border have treated as many mine casualties in the first three months of 2000 as in all of 1999. As a landmine hotspot, researchers now place Burma second only to Afghanistan in all of Asia.

Landmines are used both by the SPDC Army and by several resistance groups in Burma. Neither the SPDC nor any of these groups have signed the international treaty to ban landmines. In the past, SLORC/SPDC forces used mines mainly around the perimeter of their camps and resistance groups used them for similar purposes and to trigger ambushes. However, since the SLORC/SPDC captured much of Karen-held territory in 1995-97 and the KNLA adopted guerrilla tactics, the number of active KNLA troops has declined significantly, and the KNLA began making up for this by using ‘landmine warfare’; protecting base areas and supply routes with mines instead of troops, mining pathways to restrict the movement of SPDC columns, and mining roads against military supply convoys. The KNLA produces most of its own mines from basic materials such as piping, explosive, scrap metal or shotgun pellets, a detonator and a cheap battery. None of these mines are mapped or cleared; the KNLA tells villagers which areas and pathways are mapped, but this information doesn’t spread quickly enough and many villagers are wounded or killed by KNLA mines.

The SPDC responded to the KNLA’s increasing use of mines by radically increasing its own mine use. The Chinese government supplied the SPDC with a factory to produce landmines domestically so the regime no longer needs to rely on supplies of Chinese or American mines. The SPDC now produces two main landmines: the MM-1 and the MM-2. The MM-1 is a copy of the Chinese-made PMOZ-2 or ‘corncob’ mine, and the MM-2 is a copy of the Chinese-made PMN mine; both of these Chinese models have been heavily used in Cambodia. The MM-1 is buried until just the top of the detonator, topped by the small activation button, is at ground level; the MM-2 is buried so that the flat top surface is at ground level, and the entire flat top is the activation surface. MM-1 mines can also be rigged as booby-traps with tripwires, and are more powerful than the MM-2. [For more photos and descriptions of these mines, see Photos #P1-P5 in Photo Set 99-A.] SPDC troops are now laying thousands of these mines, particularly through the Dawna mountains of eastern Pa’an District, and their mine use now far exceeds that of the KNLA. The SPDC units lay mines along pathways used by villagers and never inform the villagers of their location. In areas where they have ordered villages to relocate, SPDC units are now landmining the ruins of many of the villages because they know the villagers will return, and they have also landmined rice fields to prevent villagers from harvesting their crops. The SPDC troops, particularly in Pa’an and Dooplaya districts, are now routinely using their porters to march in front of Army columns as human mine detonators. Women and children are sometimes gathered for this specific purpose, and many villagers have fled their villages in fear of this. At the same time the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, allied to the SPDC), not wanting to be left behind, have begun heavy use of landmines in Pa’an District.

The result is an increasingly desperate situation for villagers and internally displaced people, particularly in Papun, Pa’an and Dooplaya districts. It appears that most of the casualties of landmines are SPDC soldiers, villagers, porters during their escape from SPDC columns, and KNLA soldiers, in that order. For more details on landmine use, see "Beyond All Endurance" (KHRG, December 1999), "Uncertainty, Fear, and Flight" (KHRG, November 1998), "Dooplaya Under The SPDC" (KHRG, November 1998), "False Peace" (KHRG, March 1999), "Caught in the Middle" (KHRG, September 1999), "Starving Them Out" (KHRG, March 2000), "Death Squads and Displacement" (KHRG, May 1999), photos #P1-P6, P29, and N21 in Photo Set 99-A, and photos #42-44 in Photo Set 95-A.

Photo #5-1: Lay Ghaw camp of SPDC Infantry Battalion #62 Column 2, Pa’an district, which was captured by the KNLA on April 3^rd 2000. The photo shows an ammunition storage bunker which contained Burmese-made MM-2 anti-personnel landmines (circular, in the foreground) and claymore mines (background). Claymore mines are generally set up to be detonated on command at the beginning of ambushes. [Photo: FTUK Pa’an district]

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Photo #5-2: More claymore mines and a few MM-2 mines, also captured by the KNLA at Lay Ghaw camp. The writing on the ammunition box reads ‘Captain Zaw Win Thein’, presumably the frontline officer to whom the ammunition was assigned. [Photo: FTUK Pa’an district]

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Photo #5-3: Some 60 millimetre mortar shells with their carrying tubes and an ammunition box found at Lay Ghaw camp. These make up typical loads which porters have to carry. SPDC troops normally force an adult male porter to carry at least twelve 60 millimetre mortar shells in their carrying tubes at a time. [Photo: FTUK Pa’an district]

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[Warning: the above photo is graphic.]

Photo #5-4: A villager from Pa Koh village, Karenni State, who stepped on an SPDC landmine laid near his village in February 2000 and was killed. SPDC troops burned the village in January (see photo #1-32 under ‘Village Destruction and Relocation’), then laid landmines nearby. [Photo: FBR volunteer]

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[Warning: the above photo is graphic.]

Photo #5-5: Saw K---, who stepped on an SPDC landmine at Dta Er Kyo in Papun District on December 24^th 1999 at 7 a.m., receiving treatment from a KNLA medic. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #5-6: Saw E---, who stepped on an SPDC landmine on November 18^th 1999 between Dta Kaw Dtoh Baw and Tee Khoh Day villages, Papun District. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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