Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi calls for a ban on mine use in Myanmar/Burma

For an English translation of Aung San Suu Kyi's statement please click on the PDF icon above

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate from one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, speaking in May 2003 in Longkhin. Photo: Burma Campaign UK

In recent years, Myanmar/Burma has been the only country where there has been confirmed, regular use of antipersonnel mines on large scale by government forces.

During a recent ICBL mission to the country, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's 1991 Nobel Peace laureate, said that all combatants within the country should end use of antipersonnel mines. She called on both the formal military forces, known in Burmese by its acronym, the Tat Ma Daw, as well as combatants in ethnic militias, to "cease the way of mines".

Previously Aung San Suu Kyi endorsed the Mine Ban Treaty when it was adopted in 1997. She has promoted the landmine ban on several occasions and in December 2010 added her name to the list of 15 other Nobel Peace Laureates, including Jody Williams, the former ICBL Coordinator and Co-Laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, who signed a letter to President Obama calling on the United States to ban landmines.

Aung San Suu Kyi has stated in her recent message on the mine ban that, "Ethnic armed groups, if they carry arms in order to protect their own people and the areas where they live, should not use landmines in their engagement in military operations. Likewise, the Tat Ma Daw should also not be engaged in using landmines if they really want to protect the lives of the ethnic people of the country."

She urged all combatants, "to start to ban landmines in their operations without waiting for their opponent to start to do it."

A focal country campaign seeking to bring an end to the suffering caused by antipersonnel mine used in Myanmar/Burma has placed Aung San Suu Kyi's video statement on its website, www.burma.icbl.org