Mine clearance groups await ceasefire agreement

Although the international agencies have opened offices in Myanmar to aid the mine clearing process, operations cannot begin until the government gives them the green light. 

Thant Zin, chairperson of Nyein Chan Myanmar, an aid organisation serving land mine victims, said: “Currently we cannot start the mine clearance process since the government has not given us permission. There are seven foreign mine clearance groups [in Myanmar]. There are also domestic groups. We hope the government will allow us after battles have totally ceased.”

Yangon Region Chief Minister Myint Swe said on April 4 that mine sweeping operations could begin only after the all battle fields are free of fighting. 

Thant Zin said: “The mine clearance groups are not interested in ceasefires or the end of fighting. They just want to start the process where it can be done so that people in those areas can live peacefully. This will remove threats [to their safety]. However, the government is concerned that these areas are not peaceful and are home to insurgents. Therefore, there could be clashes at any time, which would endanger mine clearers.”

Yann Faivre, director of Handicap International, agreed that the sweeping process should only begin after the nationwide ceasefire accord is reached. 

According to landmine campaigner Yeshua Moser Puangsuwan, anti-landmine aid to Myanmar should be shifted to other countries since aid processes cannot be implemented in Myanmar yet. 

President Thein Sein called on the international community to provide for aid for land mine clearance in 2012. However, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Myanmar is not yet among 162 countries which have ratified or acceded to the United Nations’ Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty. ICBL is a network of over 1,300 non-governmental organisations in 70 countries, and received the Nobel Peace Award in 1997.

Despite the government’s request, as of the end of 2014, no humanitarian mine clearance has been allowed to start, even though at least eight humanitarian mine clearance agencies have established a presence within the country, ICBL said in its annual Landmine Monitor report released in December 2014. The report showed over 3,500 casualties of landmines in Myanmar since its first report in 1999. 

“Compared to other countries, Myanmar ranks very high in the number of known casualties due to antipersonnel mines,” it said.

The report said that mine use by both government forces and non-state actors continues to occur. However as of late 2014, information available to the Monitor indicates a significantly lower level of incidences of new mine use when compared to former years.

The Landmine Monitor report also showed that risk education remains inadequate or non-existent in most areas with reported casualties. Access to medical and rehabilitative assistance to mine survivors, and other persons with disabilities, in Myanmar increased significantly during 2013 and early 2014, but remains insufficient. The report identified over 50 townships in Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Mon, Rakhine, and Shan states, as well as in Bago and Tanintharyi regions suffering from some degree of mine contamination, primarily from antipersonnel mines. Kayin state and eastern Bago division contain the most heavily mine-affected areas.

Providing for the needs of the landmine disabled and other disabled people, is legal obligation for the government of Myanmar under the rights enshrined in the international Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, which came into force for Myanmar in January 2012.