Communist leadership to combatants: Use more land mines

(CNN Philippines) — As if taunting President Rodrigo Duterte, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Monday said the New People’s Army (NPA) "must further expand use of command-detonated explosives" (CDX) in launching tactical offensives against the government forces.

In a released statement posted on its website, the CPP rejected the demand of Duterte against land mines — calling such as "baseless".

The CPP said that CDX landmines were "legitimate weapons of war and are allowed under the Geneva Conventions and the Ottawa Treaty on Landmines.”

“Perhaps, he has not been closely listening to explanations about landmine conventions and distinctions made about different types of landmines. The aim of the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines is to protect civilians from accidental explosions,” the statement said.

The Treaty defines anti-personnel mines as those designed to be exploded by “the presence, proximity or contact of a person.”

The statement also said “The NPA is very careful about using weapons that may accidentally hurt or injure civilians.”

The CPP said that the explosives and landmines used by NPA were command-detonated or blasted manually, some with a battery-powered electronic trigger.

"CDX landmines, which NPA ordinance units manufacture carefully, will not explode simply if it is stepped on, tripped upon or kicked around. Furthermore, CDX landmines are not laid out indiscriminately and are always manned or within the immediate proximity of the NPA unit that emplaced them.”