Type of Incident

Landmine incident

Date of Incident(s)

February 16th 2023, 9 am

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

H--- village, Meh Klaw village tract[2], Bu Tho Township, Mu Traw District 

Victim Information

Name

Saw[3] Y---

Naw[4] W---

Age

55

32

Sex

Male

Female

Ethnicity

Karen

Karen

Marital status   

Married

Married

Occupation

Plantation worker

Laundry attendant

Religion

Buddhist

Buddhist

Position

Villager

Villager

Village

H--- village, Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho Township, Mu Traw District 

H--- village, Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho Township, Mu Traw District 

Perpetrator Information

Name(s)           

Rank

Company/Battalion/Division

Based at

Commander’s Name

Unknown

Unknown

Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[5] Battalion #15

Dwe Lo and Lu Thaw Township

Unknown

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information.

The researcher learned about the incident from a villager who lives in the same village as the victims, and who visited them in the hospital.

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

The source [interviewed villager] verified this information by meeting with the victims of the landmine explosion at the hospital, getting their first-hand testimony.

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail. For each incident, be sure to include 1) when the incident happened, 2) where it happened, 3) what happened, 4) how it happened, 5) who was involved, and 6) why it happened. Also describe any villager response(s) to the incident, the aftermath and the current living situation of the victims. Please use the space prepared below, and create an attachment if needed.

On February 16th 2023 at 9 am, two villagers, father and daughter, from H--- village, Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho Township, Mu Traw District, went to cut bamboo to fence their farmlands. When approaching the place to cut bamboo, Saw Y--- (55 years old) stepped on a landmine, injuring his right leg [that had to be amputated]. His daughter, Naw W--- (32 years old), stepped on another landmine when she went to help her father. Her legs were seriously injured by the landmine’s explosion, resulting in amputations of both legs.

Hearing the sound of an explosion, H--- villagers learned about the incident, and contacted other villagers nearby, as well as local Karen National Union (KNU)[6] leaders working in the area. After hearing about the incident, the local KNU leaders and some villagers from H--- village went to get the two injured villagers from the incident location [close to the village] and brought them back to the village. The two victims were later sent by car to a hospital managed by the State Administration Council (SAC)[7] located in Hpapun Town. One of the victims explained that the SAC healthcare workers did not want to provide proper care to them because it was not an SAC landmine that the injured villagers stepped on. To be able to receive proper healthcare, [H---] villagers discussed among themselves and agreed to provide food, such as chicken and other, to [SAC] healthcare workers [to ensure the victims received treatment].

Residents of H--- believe that the landmines that injured Saw Y--- and Naw W--- were planted by KNLA soldiers from Battalion #15 because the KNLA had informed some villagers about the planting of landmines in the area beforehand. KNLA soldiers had informed some villagers one week earlier when they planted the landmines in the surrounding area, where Saw Y--- and Naw W--- had stepped on the landmines. The KNLA also asked A--- villagers, from Ma Htaw village tract, Dwe Lo Township, to inform villages nearby about the contaminated area. The place of this landmine incident is located close to SAC Infantry Battalion (IB)[8] #19 and #642 camp. The villagers from H--- village, including the victims, have never attended Mine Risk Education (MRE) training [The Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) is running an MRE program in the region].

Neither Saw Y--- nor Naw W--- received support from any organisation since they were injured from the landmines’ explosion. In the fourth week of February 2023, after one week at the SAC-managed hospital in Hpapun Town, they were sent to another hospital in town [unknown name]. It has not been possible to contact the victims since they were visited and interviewed in the [first] hospital [in Hpapun].

Saw Y--- and Naw W--- did not receive any support even after they had been discharged from the hospital [as explained by a local villager]. Saw Y--- used to secure his family’s livelihood by working as a daily labourer and Naw W--- used to wash clothes at hospitals and houses for her income before the 2021 military coup. The victims are facing difficulty securing their livelihoods because their [injured] legs were amputated and so they cannot work.

Villagers living in H--- village are afraid to work on their farmlands because of landmine contamination in the surrounding areas, and it has created more fear now that two villagers have been seriously injured from landmine explosions.

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

Permission to share this info was provided by the victims to the villager that visited them at the hospital, with whom the researcher conducted the interview.