I returned from my fellowship at the end of July but still find myself thinking of new blog topics every week. So before the new semester picks up, I thought I would share one more post on a topic I wish I’d had more time to write about during my fellowship: the environment.

A Pa-O woman waits to be picked up with her firewood for cooking and heating because her community has no electricity. Across the road is a coal power plant, which sends all its electricity to Thailand and large cities

There are many topics regarding the environment to write about, including: mining in Southern Shan State to export coal (and – word has it – uranium) to Russia and sell electricity to Thailand, or deforestation to grow poppies for the opium trade (which some resistance groups use to fund their fight for democracy). Here, however, I will discuss landmines, an urgent issue Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO) is dealing with right now and that my coworkers felt passionately about.

One of the first things my PYO coworkers and I bonded over was love of our respective countries’ natural beauty. Over the course of my fellowship, we spent several afternoons together looking through photos and navigating street-view on Google Maps to show each other our homes. I showed them Trondheim and our fjords, while they showed me the mountainous farmland and jungle around their villages, making me promise to come visit “when this is all over.”

Inlay Lake in Southern Shan State

“When this is all over” isn’t just referring to the end of the civil war and Southern Shan State being an active battleground. They are also talking about when it is safe to walk on the land again without the deadly threat of undetonated landmines, known as unexploded ordnance, left behind by the fighting.

Unexploded ordnance refers to munitions and explosives that have not yet detonated but pose a risk of exploding. These weapons often prolong the displacement of communities even after armed combat is over. While international attention (and often funding) tends to shift away after the violence in a conflict is over, unexploded ordnance continues to claim lives even decades later. As recently as April, 5 people were killed by unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, 26 years after the war ended. Ukraine is now recognized as the most mined country in the world, and estimates of de-mining timelines reach over a century from now.

Farmers in Southern Shan State

In Myanmar, parties on all sides appear to be using such weapons, and Nang Hom explained to me that the military and its allies use landmines to terrorize and drive away civilians as well as militant combatants. What makes this particularly insidious is that people without weapons-training are less likely to recognize landmines, leaving civilians – children in particular – more vulnerable. UNICEF reports that the civilian casualties from explosive ordnance incidents nearly tripled from 2022 to 2023.

Not only are people being forced from their homes, but they are also losing their livelihoods; grazing pastures and farmland are rendered useless. This strategy has both immediate and long-term consequences. In the short-term, it leaves both people and livestock dependent on the military, through which official international aid is channeled – or withheld. In the long-term, however, it will inevitably stunt Myanmar’s agriculture and economic development.

The film Lose and Hope also depicts the military’s indiscriminate use of landmines. And it was while watching that film that the brutality of these weapons struck me, as multiple characters over the course of the film lost limbs or were paralyzed or killed by mines planted by the military in villages and training camps.

A landmine victim receiving aid from PYO

Nang Hom and Lili explained to me that the communities in Southern Shan State do not have the medical resources to deal with the people who come in contact with the mines. As a result, they suffer more casualties and are forced to conduct medical treatment with limited equipment, including amputations without pain medication.

It’s a testament to the problem-solving mentality of PYO and the individuals I worked with that one of the first things Nang Hom brought up on this topic was how to teach community members to de-mine and recognize mines themselves. She noted that the unexploded ordnance have contributed to a climate of fear, and unless people feel that they can move about safely and make their communities safe again, this fear will stand in the way of peacebuilding and reconciliation.

(The impact of landmines on the natural environment and animals is also fascinating and heartbreaking – I recommend this article about elephants being pushed into mined areas in Myanmar by deforestation in Thailand to glimpse the toll animals pay for our fighting.)