Military Lays
Internationally Banned Weapon
Human Rights Watch
(New York) – Burmese security forces have laid landmines during attacks on villages and along the Bangladesh border, posing a grave risk to Rohingya Muslims fleeing atrocities, Human Rights Watch said today. The Burmese government should immediately stop using antipersonnel landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
(New York) – Burmese security forces have laid landmines during attacks on villages and along the Bangladesh border, posing a grave risk to Rohingya Muslims fleeing atrocities, Human Rights Watch said today. The Burmese government should immediately stop using antipersonnel landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
“The dangers faced
by thousands of Rohingya fleeing atrocities in Burma are deadly enough without
adding landmines to the mix,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director. “The
Burmese military needs to stop using these banned weapons, which kill and maim
without distinction.”
According to witness
accounts, independent reporting, and photo and video recordings, Burmese
soldiers have in recent weeks laid antipersonnel landmines at key crossing
points on Burma’s border with Bangladesh. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch
that Burmese military personnel also planted mines on roads inside northern
Rakhine State prior to their attacks on predominantly Rohingya villages. The
Burmese government has accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of
using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against infrastructure and security
forces.
Placing
landmines in the path of fleeing refugees and on roads where families are
likely to travel is heartless beyond words. (Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia
Director)
Two Rohingya
refugees from inner areas of Rakhine State, one from Buthidaung and another
from Rathedaung township, told Human Rights Watch they saw the Burmese military
laying antipersonnel mines on roads as the military entered and attacked
villagers. “Mohammad,” 39, said he saw a neighbor’s son step on one of the
mines laid by the military. The mine blew his right leg off.
On September 4,
2017, a landmine detonated on a path used by many refugees near the hamlets of
Taung Pyo Let Yar, about 200 meters from the Bangladesh border. Human Rights
Watch witnessed smoke arising from the hamlets, suggesting burning by the
military that caused villagers to flee. The next day, three Rohingya men were
wounded in three separate landmine explosions near the same border point.
Two Rohingya
refugees told Human Rights Watch that men in apparent Burmese military uniforms
were seen in the northern part of Taung Pyo Let Yar performing some activity on
the ground prior to the September 4 explosions. One described watching a
Burmese military patrol on the road near the border on the morning of September
4. From a vantage point in so-called no-man’s land, he observed several
soldiers from the patrol stop at least twice, kneel down on the ground, dig
into the ground with a knife, and place a dark item into the earth.
Since late August,
Burmese security forces, following a coordinated attack by ARSA militants, have
carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing involving mass arson, killing, and
other abuses against the Rohingya population, causing the flight of more than
420,000 people to neighboring Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch
has called on members of the United Nations Security Council to hold a public
meeting and adopt a resolution that condemns the Burmese military’s ethnic
cleansing campaign and threatens to impose further measures, including targeted
sanctions on military leaders and an arms embargo.
In April 2017, news
media reported that the Burmese and Bangladeshi governments agreed to remove
landmines and IEDs from the border area. On September 6, the Bangladesh
government protested the recent use of landmines on the border by Burmese security
forces. In her September 21 address to the UN General Assembly in New York,
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Burma of laying landmines along
the border to prevent Rohingya from fleeing the violence. According to Border
Guard Bangladesh (BGB) officials, at least five people have been killed and 12
injured from landmine blasts.
The Landmine Monitor
reported that Burmese security forces have consistently used antipersonnel
mines in numerous locations along the Bangladesh-Burma border since 1999, but
this use had been abating in recent years. In September 2016, Deputy Minister
of Defense Maj. Gen. Myint Nwe informed parliament that the army continues to
use landmines in fighting with ethnic minority armed groups.
The use of
antipersonnel landmines is banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Bangladesh is a
party to the treaty and destroyed its landmine stocks in accordance with its
treaty obligations. Although Burma is not a party to the treaty, these weapons
are unlawful because they cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants,
and will kill and maim civilians long after they are placed. The Burmese
government has not substantively responded to the allegations, but Zaw Htay,
spokesman for de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, suggested that Rohingya
militants might be responsible. Rakhine State Security and Border Affairs
Minister Col. Phone Tint denied allegations that government forces were laying
landmines, and blamed ARSA: “There’s no landmine planted by the military in the
area. The terrorists planted the landmines. The military will never do that.”
In a February 2011
statement on the landmine ban, Aung San Suu Kyi told the International Campaign
to Ban Landmines:
I believe everyone
is aware that landmines should not be used in Myanmar, considering the serious
effects that they have not only on troops in combat, but also on non-combatant
civilians who are tending to their daily survival and livelihood – mothers,
fathers, and their children. In order to prevent this the Tat Ma Daw [Burmese
armed forces], as well as soldiers in combat – meaning all parties engaged in
armed conflict – must make their decision to cease the way of mines.
“Placing landmines
in the path of fleeing refugees and on roads where families are likely to
travel is heartless beyond words,” Ganguly said. “The Burmese government should
immediately end its ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya population,
including by immediately clearing landmines in northern Rakhine State.”
Human Rights Watch
is a co-founder and chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which
received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban
Treaty and its contributions to a new international diplomacy based on
humanitarian imperatives.
Human
Rights Watch reporting from the ground on the Burmese military’s ongoing
campaign of ethnic cleansing: https://www.hrw.org/blog-feed/rohingya-crisis
Recent
Cases of Landmine Use in Rakhine State
Sabikam Nahor,
approximately 45, lost both of her legs below the knees after stepping on an
antipersonnel landmine laid inside Burma near the Bangladesh border. She told
Human Rights Watch that the incident occurred on the afternoon of September 4,
2017, after the Burmese military attacked her village, in the northern part of Taung
Pyo Let Yar. Nahor said that she was in an outdoor latrine when she heard the
shooting and ran toward the Bangladesh border nearby. She said that she had
used the same path on many occasions before when she would go to markets across
the border. Nahor said she was running when there was a sudden explosion as she
stepped on the ground. She fell and, from the ground, saw one of her legs
detached from her body. Several Rohingya picked her up and took her across the
border, and from there she was transported to a hospital.
Subir Ahmed, 55,
said that on August 28, his son, Azizul Huq, 15, stepped on a landmine and was
killed within 60 meters of the Bangladesh border. Subir said that his son and
his brother were separated from the family on August 25, after at least 30
Burmese soldiers arrived in their home of Taung Pyo Let Yar and opened fire on
villagers who had just finished morning prayers. While waiting for his son at
the border at Thiang Khali in Bangladesh, Subir heard a loud blast and then saw
Azizul Huq lying on the ground near his brother. Subir rushed to where his son
was lying on the ground and picked him up, leaving the remains of the boy’s
shattered legs behind. Subir Ahmed noted that at least once a year, he had
traveled on the same path to transport fish to markets in Bangladesh.
Mohammad said that
the son of his neighbor, Noor Islam, was a victim of antipersonnel mines on
August 29 at about midday in Buthidaung township. He said they were not aware
that mines were in the area. “I saw his right leg was gone,” Mohammad said. “I
saw the mines explode with my own eyes on the road.” Mohammad said he had
traveled on the same road the day before the fighting broke out, and that at
that time it was safe.
Military
Placing of Landmines
The refugee who
witnessed soldiers digging in the northern part of Taung Pyo Let Yar which
borders Bangladesh said that he continued to monitor the activities of the
military patrol, and went to several sites where he observed similar
activities. He said that from September 4 to 10 he removed several antipersonnel
mines from the ground, and used rocks to detonate another three mines.
Senior Border Guard
Bangladesh (BGB) officers said that they observed similar activities by Burmese
soldiers over several days before September 4. They alleged that Burmese
officials acted contrary to border agreements and protocols by failing to
notify their Bangladeshi counterparts in advance of entering the border area.
Refugees also
described seeing landmines on other paths in no-man’s land. Human Rights Watch
obtained images of emplaced PMN-1 type antipersonnel blast mines along the
fence on the Burma side of the border. From the images alone, Human Rights
Watch was not able to determine the origins of these PMN-1 type mines,
particularly whether they were copies of the Soviet design produced by China
(Type 58) or by Burma (MM-2).
In addition to
mine-laying on the border, Human Rights Watch received credible accounts from
two Rohingya who described the use of antipersonnel landmines on roads in
Buthidaung township after August 25, just before the military started attacking
villages, hindering flight from the villages.
“Rohim,” 52,
described soldiers arriving by foot and in trucks to Chut Pyin, Rathedaung, in
the early morning of August 25. He said that the soldiers were working in teams
and placed landmines on the road outside his large, mud-walled house. “When
they are coming, some are in four-man teams, some in 10-man teams, and some
were sitting, digging, and putting mines in the roads,” said Rohim. He said
they only laid mines in the roads, which prevented villagers from using the
roads as they fled heavy gunfire and other attacks by the military.
Mohammad said that
in addition to attacking his village with gunfire and other explosive weapons
on the night of August 26, the military emplaced antipersonnel mines on the
road in Taung Bazar, Buthidaung. He said that mines were placed near the
hospital.
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Fires
continue at Rohingya villages in Myanmar: Amnesty