This news bulletin describes two landmine incidents occurring in February and June 2013 in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District. On February 2nd 2013, 22-year-old Saw H--- from S--- village was walking home after collecting firewood in Maw Lay Forest when he stepped on a landmine, sustaining temporary injuries to his leg. On June 1st, 45-year-old Maung W--- stepped on a landmine at Chauck Kway. The landmine shrapnel caused major damage to his left leg, and it was amputated as a result.

Three Western oil companies -- Total, Premier and Unocal -- bent on exploiting natural gas , entered partnerships with the brutal Burmese military regime. Since the early 1990's, a terrible drama has been unfolding in Burma. Three western oil companies -- Total, Premier, and Unocal -- entered into partnerships with the brutal Burmese miltary regime to build the Yadana and Yetagun natural gas pipelines.

Ramree Island, Myanmar - Zaw Myint looked quizzical as he sniffed a handful of grey sludge. He had just pulled the mud up from the bottom of an oil well he's digging on Myanmar's impoverished western coastline, hoping for the sweet whiff of black gold.

"The money I get working here is good," Zaw Myint said, standing in a shallow pool of water that glistened with the sheen of oil.

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.

Key developments March 1999-May 2000: Government forces and at least ten ethnic armed groups continue to lay
antipersonnel landmines in significant numbers. Landmine Monitor estimates there were approximately 1,500 new mine victims in 1999. The Committee Representing the People's Parliament endorsed the Mine Ban Treaty in January 2000."
Includes chart of Ethnic Political Organizations with Armed Wings in Burma.

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during August 2011 by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw T---, a 74 year-old Buddhist village head who described the planting of what he estimated to be about 100 landmines by government and non-state armed groups in the vicinity of his village.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2012 by a community member, describing events occurring in Papun District from November 2011 to July 2012. The report describes restrictions placed upon villagers' movement by Major Thi Ha of Tatmadaw LIB #212; villagers were told not to travel to their farms and were threatened with being shot at if they were seen outside of their village. Villagers also faced restrictions on their movement as a result of unexploded landmines.

Formerly East Asia Gold Corp. Nothing much on the site (Sept 2001) though they are mentioned as active in the 2001 Mining Annual Report.

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

The history of Burma’s jade mines in the West is a brief one. While hundreds of different reports, articles and even books exist on the famous ruby deposits of Mogok, only a handful of westerners have ever made the journey to northern Burma’s remote jade mines and wrote down their findings. Occidental accounts of the mines make their first appearance in 1837. Although in 1836, Captain Hannay obtained specimens of jadeite at Mogaung during his visit to the Assam frontier (Hannay, 1837), Dr. W.Griffiths (1847) was the first European to actually visit the mines, in 1837 (Griffiths, 1847).

Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian-based company whose operations in Burma have recently come under renewed scrutiny following the release of a report by a mining watchdog group, has come out in defense of its Burmese business partners, the ruling SPDC