Landmines take a heavy toll in lives and livelihoods...

"A dozen or so years ago, Mee Reh was helping to secure a rebel-held area of Burma’s eastern Karenni State with landmines. Today he is helping to secure a new life for landmine victims.

Mee Reh, 38, is one of 11 workers making artificial limbs at a small workshop in a Karenni refugee camp in Thailand’s northern Mae Hong Son province. The enterprise is run by Handicap International, an international organization working to ban the use of landmines and to help landmine victims.

Big companies push small prospectors aside in hunt for Burma’s riches...

"In Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen tells Alice: “A word means what I want it to mean.” That sums up in one sentence the state of Burma’s statute books—particularly those decrees relating to mining the country’s rich resources.

Robert Moody, in his 1998 “Report on Mining in Burma,” put it more directly. The law on mining passed by the Rangoon regime in 1994, he said, “is not just one, but a parade of farts in a bucket.”

Battered Burma’s unanswered question: when will the fighting end?...

"The horrors of war are all too visible on Myo Myint’s scarred body. The former Burma Army trooper has only one arm and one leg. The fingers of one hand are just stumps, he’s almost blind in one eye and pieces of landmine shrapnel still lodge in his body.

Myo Myint: Crippled and disillusioned by war

Myo Myint is one of countless thousands of men and women maimed for life in Burma’s ongoing civil war, which has been raging for more than half a century—one of Asia’s longest unsolved conflicts...

Summary:
Since 2007, destructive platinum mining has been taking place in the hills north of
Tachilek, eastern Shan State, impacting about 2,000 people from eight Lahu, Akha
and Shan villages. The platinum is being extracted by Burmese mining companies and
exported to China and Thailand.
Five companies are currently operating around the Akha village of Ah Yeh, 13 kilometers
north of Tachilek. They have forced villagers to sell property and land at cheap prices,
and confiscated other lands without compensation. Hundreds of acres of farms and

Gas and oil companies are using offshore tax havens to disguise their investments in Burma...

"BANGKOK — GAS and oil companies are using British offshore tax havens in the Caribbean and Bermuda to disguise their investments in Burma, avoiding international sanctions and public attention.

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Despite US and EU sanctions, intended to isolate the military regime and force democratic change, Burma’s natural gas industry in particular is booming.

The Mines and Communities Website ("MAC") was initiated by
members of the Minewatch Asia-Pacific London support group. Its main aim is to ensure easy access to materials published by the group, as well as partner organisations and individuals.

We want to make information on mining impacts, projects, and the
corporate sector more widely available. Above all, we hope to empower
mining-affected communities, so that they can better fight against
damaging proposals and practices.

Mine Ban Policy; Casualties and Victim Assistance;
Cluster Munition Ban Policy; Support for Mine Action; Mine Action; Complete Profile.

Farmers from eastern Shan State’s Tachileik Township have called for an immediate end to gold mining operations in the area, which they say are seriously polluting water sources and causing other environmental damage.

The ethnic Shan villagers from Na Hai Long, Weng Manaw and Ganna villages in Talay sub-township said that more than 300 acres of farmland can no longer be cultivated due to waste produced by gold-mining companies.

Executive Summary: "This report is the culmination of a one year investigation by Amnesty International into alleged human
rights abuses by companies, including multinational companies, operating in Myanmar. The
report focuses on the Monywa copper mine project and highlights forced evictions, substantial
environmental and social impacts, and the repression, sometimes brutal, of those who try to protest.
It also raises serious questions about opaque corporate dealings and possible infringements of economic

Elephants are becoming the latest victims of landmines planted along the war-torn Thai-Burma border.

Modern mine warfare began in 1969, and over the past thirty years mine pollution has increased
greatly. Today mines are being laid on a near daily basis by both government forces and several
armed ethnic groups. The military government of Burma, formerly known as the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), now calls itself the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

Key developments since May 2000: Myanmar government forces
and at least eleven ethnic armed groups continue to lay antipersonnel
mines in significant numbers. The governments of Bangladesh and
Thailand both protested use of mines by Myanmar forces inside their
respective countries. In a disturbing new development, mine use is
alleged to be taking place under the direction of loggers and narcotics
traffickers, as well as by government and rebel forces.