Rakhine Chief Minister ignores IDP safety demand over landmines, while offering two months rice rations -if they return home

Narinjara News, February 17, 2023

U Htein Lin, the Rakhine Chief Minister of the Military Council, who arrived in Ponnagyun town on February 15, said that he would provide 600,000 kyat per family and 2 months of rice rations, so that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) could return home. But the IDPs said that he had ignored their demand for landmine clearance around the villages and forests where the fighting took place.

An official from the Yay Phyu Kan IDP camp in Ponnagyun town said, “ If we return to our homes, we are poor people, so we have to rely on the forest for food. We also have to rely on the creek. We dare not go home because of the danger of landmines. We depend on the mountain for food. Therefore we request that the landmines be cleared, so that we can find food. The Chief Minister has not made any promises to clear the landmines.”

In Rakhine State, the IDPs do not dare to return to their villages as there are frequent  deaths and injuries due to landmines left by the war, in the vicinity of these villages where the IDPs used to live before the fighting broke out.

The landmines left over from the war in Rakhine frequently explode. Ordinary civilians are injured and killed almost every day, but currently the Military Council is not doing anything to remove the landmines, and the residents said that there is no humanitarian assistance including medical expenses for the affected people.

U Thein Tun, in charge of Ganan Taung IDP camp, also said that, “If the Military Council clears landmines in the villages and forests in the battle area, IDPs would like to return home.”

“ The people living in our camp are from the villages of Chaung Tu, Boke Daw, Kun Ohn Su. These villages are on the road where the soldiers are operating. The mountain where the military camp is located, is at the top of the village. As there are no people in the village so far, the IDPs are worried that the soldiers will eat the chickens and pigs in the villages, and plant landmines in their yards,” he said.

During a meeting with IDPs, town elders, ward administrators, and departmental officials at the youth training center in Ponnagyun on February 15 at noon, the IDP camp officials submitted a request to ‌a team led by the Rakhine State Chief Minister of the Military Council to clear the landmines.

“ They said they would provide 600,000 kyats and rice for 2 months. When we asked them to clear the landmines, they did not say anything. If they clear the landmines, the villagers can return. If the landmines are not cleared, they will die and no one will return,” he said.

In Rakhine State, there are frequent deaths and injuries due to landmines left over from the war.

On February 15, U Zaw Moe Lwin (aka) Maung Chey, a resident of Lanmadaw village, Kyauktaw township, lost one of his legs when he stepped on a landmine while collecting firewood in a mountain near his village and Light Infantry Battalion 374.

On February 6, Ko Oo San Kyi, 22, from Dalet Chaung (West) village, Dalet Chaung village-tract, Ann township, was seriously injured when he stepped on a landmine in the garden while going to work as a day laborer in the orchard.