MADRID 23 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations has warned this Friday that Burma has become the country in the world with the highest number of victims, more than 1,000, from landmines and other unexploded ordnance, and has stressed that more than 20 percent are children.
Specifically, data from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) place confirmed civilian victims in incidents of this type at 1,052 in 2023, regretting the “significant increase” compared to the 390 accidents recorded in 2022.
“The junta is doubling the impact of its extensive use of landmines to crush resistance at the national level,” said the special rapporteurs on Burma and on the rights of persons with disabilities, Tom Andrews and Heba Hagrass respectively, warning that “This grim statistic is just the surface of a larger crisis.”
The increase in victims over the last year is due in part to “egregious violations” by Burmese authorities such as “forcing civilians to walk through minefields in front of military units”, situations in which children are ” particularly vulnerable (…) often unable to recognize their dangers”.
“In addition, the indiscriminate placement of these lethal weapons in and around homes, schools, playgrounds and agricultural areas, puts children at constant risk,” Human Rights experts have added, recalling that all these actions are “absolutely “contrary” to international laws.
VICTIMS CRIMINALIZED BY THE BOARD
The United Nations has also denounced that landmine victims, particularly amputees, “are forced to hide to avoid harassment and detention.”
“Amputees, who already suffer from life-altering trauma, are being criminalized by the board, which associates missing limbs with resistance activity. The loss of a limb is considered evidence of a crime,” Andrews and Hagrass.
In this context, the reality of those affected and their families becomes even more complex due to the scarcity of resources and adequate healthcare.
“It broke my heart to talk to a young woman who had lost a leg after stepping on a land mine near her home. But I was furious when her doctor told me she had no hope of getting a prosthesis because junta forces were blocking access to the materials necessary to build one,” Andrews recalled, urging UN member states to coordinate their actions “to weaken the military junta’s ability to harm civilians.”
This report comes after UNICEF itself revealed the day before that nearly 40 percent of the 3.4 million people who are internally displaced in Burma due to violence are minors, calling for immediate measures to be taken. that guarantee the protection of children in the Asian country.
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