In July, it was an unlucky day in the Burmese calendar for farmer Yar Swe Kyin, and she warned her husband, begging him not to go out to check on his crops.

Hours later, he was killed by one of the numerous landmines laid by both sides in Myanmar’s brutal three-year civil war.

“I heard an explosion in the field,” he said in the evening from his home in the hills of northern Shan State.

“I knew he was going to that area and I was worried.”

She had insisted that her husband stay at home because the traditional Burmese calendar, which is driven by lunar cycles, planetary alignment and other factors, considered it unlucky.

“He didn’t listen to me,” he said.

“Now I only have one son and my grandson left.”

Decades of sporadic fighting between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left Myanmar riddled with deadly mines.

This conflict was further fueled by the junta’s 2021 coup, which gave rise to dozens of new “People’s Defense Forces” that are now fighting to overthrow the army.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), landmines and other remnants of war caused more deaths in Myanmar than in any other country last year; this Southeast Asian country has surpassed war-torn Syria and Ukraine.

Anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants from war killed or injured 1,003 people in Myanmar in 2023, the ICBL said yesterday.

A sign reading ‘Warning, restricted area – Landmines – Danger’ next to a road in the town of Mantong in northern Shan State. —AFP

ICBL’s latest Landmine Monitor report stated that there were 933 mine losses in Syria, 651 in Afghanistan and 580 in Ukraine.

Myanmar is not a party to the United Nations convention prohibiting the use, stockpiling or development of anti-personnel mines.

In its latest report published yesterday, it was stated that at least 228 people (more than four per week) would die and 770 people would be injured in Myanmar in 2023 due to these devices.

A short journey to collect rice to feed his wife and children in Eastern Kayah State left farmer Hla Khan crippled by a landmine, unable to work, and fearful for his family’s future.

He had returned home after the junta troops left his village and stepped on a mine placed near the entrance of the local church.

“When I woke up, I didn’t know how I fell, and it wasn’t until a minute later that I came to my senses,” he said.

“When I looked up, the sky and trees were spinning.”

The 52-year-old man, now an amputee, worries about how he will support his family of six, who are already living precariously in the midst of Myanmar’s civil war.

Danger in the grass: A member of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army carries unexploded ordnance from the Myanmar army in the town of Mantong in northern Shan State. —AFP

“After losing my leg in a land mine, I can no longer work. I just eat, sleep and sometimes visit my friends; “That’s all I can do,” he said.

“My body is not the same anymore, my thoughts are not the same and I cannot do anything I want… I can eat like others, but I cannot work like them.”

His daughter, Aye Mar, said he begged her not to return to the village.

“All hope for our family was lost when my father lost his leg,” he said.

“I don’t have a job either and I can’t support him financially. “I also feel like I’m an irresponsible girl.”

Campaign group ICBL said there had been a “significant increase” in the military’s use of anti-personnel mines in recent years, including on infrastructure such as mobile phone towers and energy pipelines.

The church in Kayah State where Hla Khan lost his leg is still standing, but its facade is riddled with bullet holes.

A green strip runs along the side of a nearby rural road; it’s a primitive warning that the forest beyond it may be contaminated.

Aye Mar said some villagers returned to their homes after the latest wave of fighting progressed.

“But right now I don’t have the courage to go and live at home,” he said.

He and his father are just two of more than three million people the United Nations says have been forced to flee their homes by fighting since the coup.

“Sometimes I think it would be better for one side to give up early in the war,” he said.

But an end to the conflict seems far away, and Hla Khan is trying to come to terms with this inevitable step.

“From that moment on, you are disabled and nothing is the same.” —AFP