With significant financial investment, in 2017, the Japanese Nippon Foundation held a ceremony in Lay Kay Kaw Village to celebrate the completion of 100 houses for people displaced by armed conflict.
This ‘peace village’ was constructed as a confidence building measure between the Karen National Union, the Karen Peace Council and the then Myanmar Government and included schools and other facilities.
However, in December 2021, open conflict between the Karen National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Armed Forces, Border Guard Forces and others drove people from this peace village to seek refuge in other places.
Lay Kay Kaw now is mostly abandoned and remains contaminated by mines, laid by all groups involved in the armed conflict over the area (see reporting by Myanmar Now and most recently by Frontier Myanmar).
The situation of people fleeing an internationally funded safe space unambiguously demonstrates the need for all combatants in Myanmar to adhere to a ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines.
Further mine warfare will mean that even more areas of the country will remain unsafe and an impediment to return and development. Further mine warfare will be the cause for a continuation of war casualties after peace comes.
Further info:
“A lurking threat: Landmines await Lay Kay Kaw returnees” Frontier Myanmar, 3 August 2023
“Landmines, and fear of renewed clashes, keep Lay Kay Kaw residents from returning” Myanmar Now, 19 December 2022
“KNU Blames Regime For Lay Kay Kaw Fighting”, Burma News International, 21 December 2021.
“Ceremony to Mark the Completion of Buildings for Conflict-Affected People in Southeast Myanmar” Nippon Foundation, 10 March 2017