(Bangkok) Amnesty International accuses the Burmese junta on Wednesday of committing war crimes by laying anti-personnel mines “massively” in villages in the state of Kayah (east), plunged into violence since the putsch of February 2021.
Posted at 8:24 p.m.
The human rights NGO denounces the “despicable and cruel” use of these explosive devices banned by the Ottawa Convention, ratified in 1997 by more than 160 countries, but not Burma.
At least 20 villages in this border region of Thailand are concerned, as well as an important road axis, a church, or paths leading to the rice fields.
“Soldiers placed landmines in the courtyards and at the entrances to houses and outside toilets,” details the report, the conclusion of a field study conducted from June 25 to July 8.
“Landmines placed by the military have killed and seriously injured civilians and the use of these devices has serious long-term consequences, including preventing displaced people from returning to their homes and working on their land. “Assures Amnesty International, without giving a number of victims.
“The army’s use of landmines has increased significantly in recent months, especially in the context of their withdrawal from certain areas,” the organization continues.
Since the military coup of 1er February 2021 which overthrew ex-civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyu, parts of Burma are ravaged by fighting between the ruling army and local militias supported by certain ethnic rebel factions.
The junta, regularly accused of atrocities, continues a bloody repression against its opponents with more than 2,000 civilians killed and more than 15,000 arrested, according to a local NGO, the UN denouncing “probable war crimes and crimes against humanity “.
In 2017, more than 740,000 refugees from the Rohingya Muslim minority found refuge in makeshift camps in Bangladesh, fleeing military abuses, large-scale violence described in March as “genocide” by the United States.
Anti-personnel mines, “explosive remnants of war” and “improvised mines” killed an average of 19 people every day in 2020, with 80% of the victims being civilians, according to the latest tally from Landmine Monitor.
The number of victims in 2020 jumped 21%, due to the slowdown in mine clearance efforts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to this organization.