Reports of landmine use in Myanmar

A landmine planted near the border of Myanmar-Bangladesh, 4 September 2017 © Private, courtesy of Amnesty International 

The 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines is very concerned with reports of new antipersonnel mine use in Myanmar.

The armed forces of Myanmar have been using antipersonnel mines for decades. They are one of the world’s last users of the weapon – other user states in recent years included North Korea and Syria.

Amnesty International’s recent reports of landmine use and casualties in Rakhine state were echoed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who said on 11 September that he was “appalled by reports that the Myanmar authorities have now begun to lay landmines along the border with Bangladesh.”

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines calls upon the government forces of Myanmar, as well as all other armed actors in the country, to renounce the use of antipersonnel mines once and for all.

Learn more about the flight of the Rohingya and landmine use at the border with Bangladesh since 1991, at Mine-Free Myanmar.