"We are full of love for you, but cannot take care of all." -- from a notice to Karen villagers that mines would be set on their land
During World War I, military personnel comprised 90 percent of deaths and civilians the other 10. In today's warfare, that ratio has been reversed. One big reason has been the proliferation of land mines. They are cheap, portable and maim or kill very effectively.
In Myanmar's Karen State, all sides in the ethnic conflict use land mines. The Karen National Union's armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, uses them to protect their supply lines and to harass their enemies. Those enemies, government forces of Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council and those of its ally, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which split from the KNU in 1995, use them in much larger numbers and far more indiscriminately.