mizzima.com/AFP-Sept 1
Six men prod and poke at dense undergrowth in eastern Myanmar with rakes and hoes — not farmers, but a rebel unit clearing deadly landmines from the war raging between the junta and pro-democracy fighters. A mine is spotted and one man lifts a mud-caked, palm-sized device from the earth with his bare hands and passes it to a comrade who deactivates it — with an ordinary pair of pliers. The shoestring deminers are scouring the hills and fields of Kayah state on the border with Thailand — a hotbed of resistance to the Myanmar military’s 2021 coup. More than 100,000 people have been displaced there, according to the United Nations, and those trying to return home do so at the peril of mines retreating fighters leave behind. “The areas we need to clear are very wide and we have to use many soldiers to clear the mines,” Sin Phyu, from the anti-junta Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), told AFP. The KNDF is one of dozens of groups battling to restore democracy in Myanmar after the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. The rebel groups have caught the army off-guard with their effectiveness, analysts say — despite being forced to rely on weapons captured from the military, bought on the black market or manufactured in highly dangerous makeshift arms factories hidden in the jungle. But despite efforts to clear them, landmines are taking a cruel toll on civilians. Read more at: https://www.mizzima.com/article/myanmars-landmine-clearers-working-pliers-and-bare-hands
